Commodities platform Canxchange has launched a new electronic trading system the company said will bring greater transparency, liquidity and efficiency to the growing global cannabis market.
“These new features enhance daily business and transactions by providing the fundamental services and direct solutions needed to overcome long-term industry challenges and barriers,” said Alex Arkentis, CEO and Co-founder of Canxchange.
The upgrades are the result of more than one year of product development and engineering work, Arkentis said.
£45+ million in inventory
Canxchange currently has more than £45 million (~€54 million/$61 million) in platform inventory value, and is trading in more than 40 key hemp products. Existing members include some of the biggest players in the European hemp industry, including those who sell hemp-based materials directly to carmakers BMW, Porsche and Volvo, the company said.
Arkentis said the company spent the past two years analyzing what the industry lacks and talking with Canxchange members about their needs. The result is a streamlined, robust platform that “will let them focus on their strategic priorities and rely on Canxchange to handle everything else,” Arkentis said.
Enhancements
Canxchange connects farmers, producers, extractors and other processors with a wide range of industries on the buying side, assuring those on both ends of the transaction are trustworthy – overcoming a chronic barrier to trade in cannabis derivatives.
The London-based company, which started in 2019, said the new platform simplifies the user experience for its more than 350 exchange members and adds production and distribution procurement contracts, enhanced data and pricing analysis, market surveillance tools, and micropayment processing.
Focus on security
Canxchange’s trading platform integrates a number of tools through Thomson Reuter’s Refinitiv service that support due diligence investigations critical in fighting financial crimes and corruption. The service scans worldwide public and private databases to identify security issues.
Once vetted, buyers and sellers can access the platform to interact anonymously until a transaction is completed. Buyers must deposit the full amount of the transaction value with Canxchange towards any purchases; both buyers and sellers are charged negotiated commissions.
2022 indicators
Canxchange said in its Q4 2021 benchmark report that it expects prices and volumes for key hemp flower derivatives to bottom out in the first half of 2022, then begin to pick up over the next year. Rising sales of hemp fiber for industrial uses and hemp seed’s potential in the food sector can bolster the industry overall, the analysts also suggested.