Evolve Funds Group announced March 29 that it has filed a preliminary prospectus with the Canadian securities regulators for an actively managed U.S. marijuana industry focused ETF.

The U.S. Marijuana ETF (USMJ) aims “to provide investors with long-term capital appreciation by actively investing in a diversified mix of equity securities of public issuers that are involved in the U.S. marijuana industry where state and local laws regulate and permit such activities,” says the company.

Evolve will act as portfolio manager for USMJ. Evolve is also the portfolio manager of the Evolve Marijuana ETF (SEED). Over the one-year period ended Feb 28, 2019, SEED returned 48.48%.

"The U.S. marijuana market is poised to become the largest in the world as recreational and medical cannabis becomes legal at state levels," said Elliot Johnson, Chief Investment Officer at Evolve ETFs and Portfolio Manager for SEED. "The US growth opportunity in cannabis is similar to the ground floor in Canada over a year ago. As we have seen over the past year with SEED, active management is more appropriate than tracking an index when investing in a developing sector driven by news and filled with entrepreneurial new businesses. We are excited to bring the same approach to the rapidly developing marijuana market in the United States."