Crypto Cannabis Club To Launch The First NFT-Powered Cannabis Brand

Crypto Cannabis Club, an NFT collection and Metaverse community for crypto and cannabis enthusiasts, recently announced the launch of the first ever NFT-powered cannabis brand, which will debut in March 2022.

Crypto Cannabis Club partnered with cannabis direct-to-consumer e-commerce platform CampNova to launch a product line with premium packaged cannabis flower.

Crypto Cannabis Club products are available to all legal cannabis consumers in California but will be offered at a substantial discount to members of the community who own an NFToker NFT. The club launched its 10,000 NFT collection called NFTokers in August 2021, which provides “membership benefits” for the people that own the club’s NFTs. Currently the club, which maintains a presence on Discord, boasts just over 21,000 members.

Initially, the product line will be available in 1/8th ounce packages of flower featuring custom artwork from the Crypto Cannabis Club. Three packages out of the total production run will also include an NFToker NFT, which is currently valued at more than $600 each.

Crypto Cannabis Club has already announced partnerships with premium cannabis brands including Highsman, Old Pal, Dr. Dabber, King Palm, Higher Standards, Vibes Papers and Marley Naturals, becoming the first NFT collection to provide its members with a real-world cannabis product.

I caught up with newly minted CEO Ryan Hunter, who is a veteran of the tech, finance and cannabis industries, to find out about Crypto Cannabis Club, its new cannabis line, and its plans for the future.

Jackie Bryant: What is Crypto Cannabis Club?

Ryan Hunter: In July 2021, we launched an NFT collection of 10,000 cannabis-inspired characters. They are called NFTokers and have been wildly popular in the cannabis and NFT communities. Since we launched our collection, we have been steadily working to build a community of crypto and cannabis enthusiasts. We have a very active Discord community, host weekly sessions on Twitter Spaces and have hosted several events for our community members in the real world. We are in the process of building out Metaverse properties and an NFT-based game for our community members. Ultimately, our goal is to provide the NFT owners in our community with the most exclusive cannabis experiences in the Metaverse and the real world. These worlds are rapidly converging, and we want to create a community beyond NFT ownership that will offer cannabis consumers a pathway between these worlds. Our hope is to be ambassadors between the Metaverse cannabis community and the IRL cannabis community.

JB: I heard you are raising money. Tell me about it!

RH: Our organization is already highly profitable due to the initial success of our NFT collection. Heading into 2022 we have ambitious plans to expand our global community and to provide our community members with more exclusive experiences.

We will be developing a 2.0 version of our soon-to-launch game and will also be expanding our Metaverse experiences. To accelerate these initiatives, we are raising a seed round of funding – less than $5M – from cannabis and crypto investors. We are excited by the initial interest we have received and hope to close the funding round by March.

 JB: Crypto Cannabis Club’s product line already has impressive brand partnerships lined up. How did those come about?

RH: Former NFL star and cannabis advocate, Ricky Williams, was an early and ongoing supporter of our community. When Ricky launched his new brand – Highsman – last fall, we turned out in force to support the launch of the brand at the Planet 13 Orange County location. It’s easy to support someone like Ricky and it helps that his cannabis is incredible!

Our partnership with Dr. Dabber has been another fun relationship. Like Highsman, Dr. Dabber’s CEO is very involved with collecting NFTs. He was a fan of our community and reached out to us to see how they could get involved.

Similarly, the founder of Old Pal is an NFT enthusiast and was easy to encourage into a partnership with our community. We have been very fortunate to have established our place at the intersection of NFTs and the cannabis community. As a result, we continue to develop relationships with leading cannabis product and accessory brands. Our community members deeply appreciate the discounts and access they receive from these partners, and it has really been a win-win for all of us.

JB: Why does the intersection of crypto, NFTs and cannabis make sense culturally and from a business perspective?

I don’t think it is too surprising that folks who enjoy crypto, gaming and digital art are also cannabis consumers.

Are you surprised? 60% of our community members purchase cannabis monthly and the other roughly 40% purchase cannabis weekly. 40% of our community members spend more than $150 per dispensary visit and frequently try new products and brands. They are the sweet spot for cannabis consumers – which has been very compelling for our cannabis product and accessory partners.

From a cultural perspective, I am fascinated by how Metaverse experiences will evolve. I don’t think that large tech companies are likely to develop an authentic and engaging virtual approximation of the IRL cannabis community. That’s where we come in. We are deeply involved in the IRL cannabis community while we build the largest cannabis community in the Metaverse. We think that an authentic community that spans both of these worlds will help ensure that the cannabis community has family in each.

JB: It seems you’re having luck with the crypto and NFT end of things, not to mention the booming community on Discord for Crypto Cannabis Club members. Why launch a cannabis product brand at all?

RH: Our global community has grown tremendously, and we are excited to reward them with their very own cannabis brand. As I mentioned, nearly half of our community members consume cannabis at least weekly. For them, this is an opportunity to enjoy some of the highest quality cannabis available at prices that are just not offered in the legal market.

We’re excited to be working with the team at Camp Nova. They provide California cannabis consumers with direct access and home delivery to some amazing products. From our initial conversations with the team, they have exceeded our every expectation and have been terrific to work with. As a minority-owned and operated business, we believe that joining with them also reflects the values that are important to our community as we work to expand the diversity of our community and all Metaverse inhabitants.

Our goal is to reinvest the profits from the cannabis product sales to steadily increase the discounts offered to our community members. Eventually we want that discount to be as close to 100% as the law allows. Free pot for owning an NFT!?! That’s a big deal!

We also see this as the first step to establish ourselves as ambassadors between the real world cannabis community and the Metaverse. This is just the beginning. Our goal is for our Metaverse properties to become a virtual connection point for cannabis aficionados and for our live events and products to be a contact point for the Metaverse in the real world.