The Last Cannabis ETFs Worth Your Money: Why Most Failed and 3 Are Still Trading
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AdvisorShares Pure US Cannabis ETF (MSOS) uses total return swaps to provide synthetic exposure to US multi-state operators and is up 111% over the past year after a 87% five-year decline, with Curaleaf Holdings as its largest position. AdvisorShares Pure Cannabis ETF (YOLO) diversifies across US MSOs, Canadian licensed producers, and ancillary names, delivering a 98% one-year gain and 82% five-year loss. Amplify Seymour Cannabis ETF (CNBS), managed by Tim Seymour, combines US and Canadian cannabis exposure with active discretion on ancillary and biotech positions, posting a 90% one-year return and 84% decline from its 2019 launch.
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US cannabis ETFs consolidated around three primary vehicles as federal reform stalled and the underlying sector stabilized, with MSOS offering the purest US multi-state operator play while YOLO and CNBS provide geographic and strategic diversification alternatives.
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Cannabis ETFs entered 2026 after multiple fund closures, stalled federal reform, and a prolonged multi‑year drawdown in underlying equities. The contraction of the product lineup has left a smaller group of actively managed, pure‑play vehicles. Three U.S.-listed ETFs, MSOS, YOLO, and CNBS, remain the primary diversified options, each showing severe long‑term losses but a sharp rebound over the past year.
The five-year picture is consistent across the group. MSOS is down 87% over five years, YOLO is down 82%, and CNBS is down 86%. The one-year picture reverses that: MSOS is up 111%, YOLO is up 98%, and CNBS is up 90%. The three products differ in how they construct that exposure, and the differences matter more now that the sector has consolidated around a shorter list of operators.
The AdvisorShares Pure US Cannabis ETF (NYSEARCA:MSOS) was the first US-listed ETF built specifically around plant-touching American multi-state operators. Because federal law prevents most US-listed funds from directly holding MSO equities, AdvisorShares uses total return swaps to gain synthetic exposure to the underlying operators. The structural workaround is the product’s entire point: it is the closest a US-listed ETF comes to a basket of domestic cannabis retailers and cultivators.
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The portfolio concentrates on the large US MSOs, with Curaleaf Holdings as the top non-governmental holding. The sector composition reflects how MSO balance sheets are reported, with Real Estate at roughly 50%, Industrials at 29%, Consumer Cyclical at 17%, and Healthcare at roughly 2%. That breakdown follows from the corporate structures of the underlying operators rather than a deliberate sector tilt.
Shares changed hands near $5 on April 22, after a 19% single-session move and a 33% gain over the trailing month. Reddit mention volume on the ticker has been low, but the ticker carried a sentiment score of 88 in the first quarter of 2026, driven by an options-focused post in r/options.
The tradeoff is concentration and counterparty structure as MSOS gives the most direct read on US MSO performance available in an ETF wrapper, but the swap-based design means holders take on counterparty exposure in addition to the underlying equity risk, and the fund’s fortunes are tightly linked to a short list of large operators and the trajectory of federal reform.
The AdvisorShares Pure Cannabis ETF (NYSEARCA:YOLO) launched before MSOS and sits alongside it in the AdvisorShares lineup as the globally diversified option. YOLO holds a mix of US MSOs accessed through swaps, Canadian licensed producers, and ancillary names that service the industry. For an investor who wants cannabis exposure without the concentrated US policy bet embedded in MSOS, YOLO is the version that spreads the risk across jurisdictions.
Sector weightings reflect how the underlying companies are classified rather than a cannabis-first taxonomy. Health Care accounts for roughly 61% of the portfolio, with Consumer Defensive at nearly 39%, reflecting how index providers categorize Canadian LPs and pharmaceutical-adjacent cannabis names.
Shares traded near $3.50, with a 22% gain over the trailing week and a 30% gain over the trailing month. The five-year drawdown of -82% is slightly shallower than those of MSOS and CNBS, consistent with the diversification argument, yet still reflects the sector-wide repricing that began after the 2021 peak.
The caveat is that the global mix cuts both ways. Canadian LP exposure softens the US reform dependency but has its own set of operating pressures, including oversupply and price compression in the Canadian retail market. The fund is also the smallest of the three by trading footprint, and a reader choosing between YOLO and MSOS is effectively choosing between international breadth and a focused US MSO bet.
The Amplify Seymour Cannabis ETF (NYSEARCA:CNBS) is managed by Tim Seymour and targets companies engaged in cannabis and hemp-related activities, generally those deriving at least half of revenue from the ecosystem. The fund was launched on July 22, 2019, benchmarks against the EQM Global Cannabis Index, and carries an expense ratio of 0.76%.
CNBS mixes US MSOs, Canadian LPs, and ancillary or biotech names, with Curaleaf Holdings again a top-weighted position. The sector breakdown, such as MSOS, is dominated by Real Estate because the underlying MSO structures are reported differently. Geographic exposure is split between the United States and Canada. The active management angle is the distinguishing feature: Seymour has editorial latitude to adjust weightings among MSOs, ancillary services, and biotech names as the regulatory picture shifts.
Shares closed near $30 after a 20% single-session move, with a one-month gain of 37%. The longer-horizon shows the same losses as peers, with shares off by 84% from the 2019 launch window.
The tradeoff with CNBS is active risk. A discretionary manager can tilt into ancillary names when federal reform stalls, but the fund’s results depend on those calls rather than a rules-based index. Readers comparing CNBS against MSOS or YOLO are evaluating the value of Seymour’s security selection relative to the more mechanical exposure profiles of the AdvisorShares products.
MSOS offers the most concentrated read on US multi-state operators and the cleanest expression of a domestic reform thesis. YOLO layers Canadian and ancillary exposure on top of that US core. CNBS takes a different route entirely: an actively managed, swap-based structure where the manager’s discretion includes derivatives positioning and Treasury collateral allocation. The one-year returns across the group reflect a sector stabilizing after a prolonged drawdown, and the five-year figures reflect the cost of the shakeout to holders who owned through the peak.
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