It’s Official—Cannabis Is the New Crypto

(Bloomberg) -- As one speculative frenzy fizzles, another arises from its ashes.

Marijuana Inc. is making more headlines than Crypto Corp. as the stocks of companies linked to the cannabis craze get caught up in a mania that’s sent prices surging.

References to “cannabis” in news articles nearly doubled the amount mentioning “crypto” on Wednesday, according to data from curated sources compiled by Bloomberg.

Peter Atwater, president of Financial Insyghts, said that Google Trends data shows the real surge in interest “is among the novice wanting to know how to buy” marijuana stocks.

But the route to riches for weed stocks is far from a straight-line higher, with their fair share of potholes along the way. On Wednesday alone, shares of Tilray Inc. nearly doubled, were halted on numerous occasions, dipped into the red, and proceeded to spike 40 percent in the final 20 minutes of the session.

References to crypto in news articles over the past year has loosely tracked the volatility of digital assets. The 30-day realized volatility of Bitcoin has tumbled to near its lowest level of the past year. Bitcoin hasn’t been as volatile as Tilray currently is since January 2014.

That’s cause to suspect we might be hearing a lot more about this extremely unpredictable space in the days to come.

To contact the reporter on this story: Luke Kawa in New York at lkawa@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Jeremy Herron at jherron8@bloomberg.net, Brendan Walsh, Randall Jensen

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