The CBX Stock Exchange has been launched today, 9 March, 2021, in a bid to protect European cannabis buyers and sellers.
With a lack of regulation in the legal European cannabis markets, the new CBX Stock Exchange (CBX) has been launched to provide transparency and quality assurance.
The commodities platform has been launched by cannabis patient and visionary, Jonas Duclos and co-founder, Kevin Goetelen. Providing a B2B trading platform for the sale and purchase of raw materials and products derived from cannabis, CBX evolved from its earlier iteration of the platform, HempBroker420, established in 2019.
The platform offers trading in flowers, hemp biomass, distillates and isolates and tinctures, and cannabis producers can connect with a range of industries such as wellness and beauty.
Co-founder and CEO, Jonas Duclos entered the cannabis industry after being diagnosed as a teenager with PRP, a rare genetic skin disease. After spending 20 years managing the excruciating pain brought about by the condition, Duclos discovered cannabis provided the most effective pain relief, dedicating his life to studying the science and economics around the plant.
Duclos commented: “Europe is facing a health crisis if cannabis products aren’t regulated to protect consumers. With the European cannabis industry expected to reach billions in the coming years it’s unbelievable there is no regulation to oversee the market.
“Europe has a reputation for protecting its citizens, but when it comes to cannabis, it’s lagging behind. The industry has been operating blindly for too long without the necessary infrastructure, quality controls and assurances in place and this needs to change.”
Quality assurance
A recent investigation by the Swiss Association of Cantonal Chemists into CBD products found 85 per cent were found to be non-compliant with the association.
In order to provide quality assurance of the platform and the products on it, CBX consulted the Swiss Health Authority and developed its own standards. It has implemented a due diligence process where companies and directors are identified, and all applicants are fully vetted prior to becoming registered members of CBX.
All must meet stringent criteria to achieve a CBX Certification level and Certificate of Analysis (COA) label which allows them to trade on the platform. The CBX Certification is awarded following verification of all required documentation.
The COA – a verified document providing details about the testing lab and crucially THC levels of the product as well as confirmation the product is free from harmful contaminants – can be obtained by members independently or through CBX’s exclusive partner, SciTec Research laboratory based in Lausanne, Switzerland.
Accredited by the Swiss Accreditation Service, Swiss Testing Labs and swiss medic, SciTec specialises in the analysis of cannabis and derivatives, with each product undergoing seven quality control checks which include analysis of THC, terpenes and composition to ensure the product is free from harmful contaminants such as heavy metals, pesticides and bacteria and is safe for human consumption.
A natural evolution
In 2019, Duclos and Goetelen’s vision for HempBroker420 was a marketplace to gather producers and distributors encountered through business dealings with CBD420 – their range of CBD products sold under their startup JBK Research.
HempBroker420 was the first platform of its kind to offer a secure B2B network to trade, and within 18 it had attracted over 2500 members and had generated more than €300,000 (~£250,963.50) of net profit. By the end of 2021, member numbers had risen to almost 4,000 from over 80 countries.
Duclos and Goetelen realised the immense gap in the market for a B2B marketplace to service cannabis ecosystem players, which led HempBroker420 to evolve into CBX Stock Exchange.
All members of HempBroker420 have now been successfully migrated onto CBX together with almost 300 products which have undergone the platform’s quality assurance checks and are live on the platform. A further 700 products are in the process of being validated and once certified will be added to the CBX product directory.
To transact on the CBD platform, members are charged a commission fee aligned to their membership subscription level of either free, standard or premium. CBX is now in the process of appointing a payments processing partner to manage the payments flow, as well as a dedicated shipping agent to offer shipping services integrated within the CBX site.
It is also in discussions with the Swiss and Portuguese Medical Authorities to obtain a licence in order to open up the platform to the global medical market. It expects to be granted the licences by Q3 2022.
CBX is currently fundraising to take the platform to full market launch and beyond and to focus on business development. It is conducting an STO (Security Token Offering) with 2000 tokens (1 Token = 850CHF) available for investment.
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