The global cannabis market: from US$ 102 billion to over US$ 1 trillion

Based on the "Cannabis/Marijuana Market" report by Fortune Business Insights.

Cannabis has gone from a niche market to one of the fastest-growing asset classes in the world. According to the consultancy Fortune Business Insights, the global market for the plant was valued at US$ 102.72 billion in 2025 and would reach US$ 137.67 billion in 2026 — then soar to US$ 1.43 trillion by 2034, compound growth of 34.03% per year. Few legal sectors of the global economy grow at that pace.

Before diving into the numbers, an honest caveat: that aggregate figure covers all cannabis — recreational, medical and industrial. Most of the value comes from the psychoactive (THC) segments, which are outside TGG Wallet's current scope. Even so, understanding the whole helps to see the size and maturity of the economy in which industrial hemp — the project's focus — sits.

A market in accelerated expansion

The main driver of this growth is the wave of legalization. Over the past decade, public opinion and policy around the plant have changed radically. More and more countries and states regulate medical use and, in many cases, recreational use too — turning a once-informal economy into a formal, taxed and supervised market. That formalization eases access to information, attracts institutional investment and creates auditable supply chains.

The second driver is product innovation. Consumers are no longer limited to flower: the market has diversified into concentrates, edibles, beverages, capsules, topicals and standardized extracts. Each format opens a new audience and raises added value. The pandemic even accelerated this shift by pushing consumers toward alternative formats and prompting several governments to relax rules.

The third driver is medical acceptance. The therapeutic use of cannabinoids — especially CBD, which is non-psychoactive — has gained growing scientific support for conditions such as chronic pain, epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, anxiety and chemotherapy side effects. Countries like Germany, Canada, Israel and Finland have taken firm steps to allow medical use, and ongoing clinical research promises new medicines in the coming years.

Who leads: regions and countries

North America is by far the dominant region: it accounted for US$ 86.1 billion and 83.82% of the global market in 2025. Recreational legalization in the United States began in 2012, with Colorado and Washington as pioneers; today, dozens of states allow adult or medical use. The North American market alone would reach US$ 428 billion by 2032. Canada was one of the first countries to legalize nationally and established itself as a leader in production and exports.

Europe is the second-largest market, driven by medical use and increasingly progressive legislation. Germany leads medical demand and directly influences European Union rules. Most European countries still restrict recreational use, but medical progress sustains consistent growth.

Asia-Pacific is emerging as the fastest-growing region. Thailand decriminalized all parts of the plant in 2022, becoming a regional hub and using hemp as a commercial crop. At the same time, markets such as Japan, India and Korea maintain strict bans — showing how uneven the regulatory picture still is.

Latin America has a historic protagonist: Uruguay, the first country in the world to fully regulate cannabis, in 2013. Mexico is moving toward recreational legalization and Brazil is advancing the medical and industrial debate. It is in this pioneering regulatory environment that TGG Wallet operates.

How the market breaks down

The sector is usually analyzed across three main axes. By type, it splits between flower and concentrates — the latter (oils, extracts, resins) growing fast thanks to greater standardization and potency. By component, it separates into THC-dominant products (psychoactive, tied to recreational use), balanced THC and CBD, and CBD-dominant (non-psychoactive, tied to wellness and medicine). By application, it spans medical, recreational, edibles, topicals and — what matters most to TGG — industrial hemp.

This market is already contested by large, professionalized companies such as Tilray, Canopy Growth, Aurora and Cronos, plus pharmaceutical firms like Jazz, which develops cannabinoid-based medicines. Consolidation, with frequent mergers and acquisitions, signals a maturing sector.

Industrial hemp: the legal, productive slice

While much of the total market's value comes from the psychoactive segments, industrial hemp — a variety of the plant with virtually no THC — sustains an entirely legal, production-oriented economy. It is one of the most versatile raw materials in the world, with applications that go far beyond what common sense imagines:

This versatility is what gives hemp real economic backing. It is not a speculative asset: it is fibers, materials, foods and inputs with concrete demand in industries ranging from fashion to construction. It is precisely this productive, auditable value that TGG Wallet tokenizes.

Challenges and limits

No honest picture is complete without the obstacles. The regulatory landscape remains uneven: while the Americas and Europe advance, much of Asia and the Middle East maintains severe bans, limiting global potential. Moreover, projections as optimistic as the US$ 1.43 trillion figure come from consultancies and vary widely from one source to another; they should be read as scenarios, not certainties. And there are the side effects associated with psychoactive use, which sustain legal restrictions in various countries.

Where TGG Wallet stands: today and the vision

Today, TGG Wallet tokenizes non-psychoactive agro-industrial hemp as a real-world asset (RWA) on the XRP Ledger, within Uruguay's legal framework. That is the concrete starting point of the project — and it does not include the recreational market or psychoactive THC products.

The vision goes further: a wallet with security implemented natively on the XRPL, working as a means of payment and with full functionality for the user — designed to become a reference across the entire legal market, as the project advances and obtains the necessary authorizations (such as the VASP license with the BCU). It is an ambition stated as an ambition, not as an already existing reality.

That is why the multi-billion-dollar picture above matters as context for the potential of the legal sector: it shows the plant is a global asset class in strong expansion. But the aggregate figure of US$ 1.43 trillion includes psychoactive segments and does not represent the market TGG addresses today. Communicating ambition while clearly separating what already is from what it aspires to be — that is the project's commitment to honesty.

Source: "Cannabis/Marijuana Market" report, Fortune Business Insights. Market projections from a consultancy; informational content.