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“The exchanges are very risk averse. They’re old, staid institutions,” Jason Paltrowitz, executive vice president of corporate services at OTC Markets, said in a phone interview. “We want to be the market for entrepreneurs.”

The OTC’s growing presence in the cannabis space is aided by a partnership with the Canadian Securities Exchange, jokingly referred to as the Cannabis Securities Exchange for the zeal with which it’s embraced the industry. Formerly focused on junior miners and energy companies, pot stocks now make up about a quarter of the CSE’s approximately 450 listings. Of those, 116 trade on OTC markets, including 13 pot stocks on the top-tier OTCQX.

“For the companies that aren’t in the billion-plus market cap range, the benefit from being listed on an exchange is minimal to non-existent,” Paltrowitz said.

Canadian exchanges have a head start in heft. Those 144 companies listed in Canada have a market value of about $57 billion, including Canopy Growth Corp., which is worth $12.2 billion and Aphria Inc. at $4 billion. The 136 cannabis companies on the OTC markets range are worth US$16 billion, ranging in size from MedMen Enterprises Inc., which is worth US$2.6 billion, to penny stocks like Global Hemp Group Inc., with a market value of about US$16.3 million.

Although dual-listing on the NYSE or Nasdaq provides a higher profile than the OTC, it can also draw trading volumes away from the home market. By contrast, a 2017 study commissioned by OTC found that firms listed on Canadian exchanges saw a 35 per cent increase in average daily trading volume in their home market after joining OTCQX.