Ascend Wellness Sets Reverse-Split Vote for Exchange Uplisting

Ascend Wellness Holdings is asking its shareholders to approve a reverse stock split, the latest step by the multistate cannabis operator toward a listing on a major U.S. stock exchange. The New York-based company filed a definitive proxy statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission and called a virtual special meeting for August 28, 2026, where holders of its Class A shares will vote on the plan.

A reverse split cuts the number of shares outstanding and raises the per-share price by the same proportion, leaving the value of an investment unchanged. Companies use it to clear the minimum share-price thresholds that senior exchanges impose on new listings. Ascend currently trades over the counter on the OTCQX market and on the Canadian Securities Exchange, and its shares change hands for less than a dollar, which is why the split it is proposing is unusually deep.

A deeper split than its peers

The proxy would hand the board discretion to set a ratio anywhere from 1-for-10 to 1-for-50. At the shallow end, Ascend’s roughly 203 million Class A shares would collapse to about 20 million; at the steep end, to roughly 4 million. The board would choose the exact ratio when it files a formal listing application, and the authorization expires after one year or once the shares are listed, whichever comes first.

That range is far wider than what rivals have needed. Curaleaf executed a 1-for-3 split on June 5, 2026, and Verano completed a 1-for-5 split on June 11, 2026. Ascend’s willingness to authorize a cut as steep as 1-for-50 signals how far below listing thresholds its stock now sits: even a tenfold reduction would lift a sub-dollar share only into the low single digits.

CEO Sam Brill framed the vote as unavoidable. “A reverse stock split is a necessary step on our path to a listing on a major U.S. exchange,” he said, arguing that an uplisting would widen the company’s access to capital and broaden its investor base. The board unanimously recommends approval, which requires a majority of all outstanding Class A shares, a high bar that makes abstentions count as no votes. Ascend has already lowered the separate threshold needed just to convene the meeting, amending its bylaws in June 2026 to cut the quorum requirement to one-third of voting power from a majority.

The step Ascend hasn’t taken

A lower share price is necessary for an uplisting, but on its own it is not enough, and this is where Ascend diverges from the two operators already on the New York Stock Exchange. Trulieve became the first U.S. plant-touching cannabis company to trade on the NYSE when it debuted on June 10, 2026, followed by Glass House (GLAS ) Brands, which began trading on June 30, 2026. Both first restructured into medical-only companies, moving their adult-use operations into separate entities, because senior exchanges will not list businesses that directly handle federally illegal recreational cannabis.

Ascend has not taken that step. It continues to run adult-use operations in Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey and Ohio, with only Pennsylvania limited to medical sales. Its push toward federal legitimacy has so far been narrower: on June 30, 2026, Ascend filed applications with the Drug Enforcement Administration to register certain state-licensed medical operations under the expedited pathway that opened after the federal government reclassified medical marijuana as a Schedule III drug in April 2026. Those applications cover only the medical portion of a business that spans 51 retail locations and more than 260,000 square feet of cultivation canopy across six facilities in seven states, and that posted $116.9 million in net revenue in the first quarter of 2026.

The harder structural question — what becomes of the adult-use business — remains unresolved in public. Registering medical dispensaries also brings federal oversight: the DEA has already begun on-site inspections of newly registered operators.

A widening race to the majors

The timing of the vote is deliberate. It falls about six weeks after a separate DEA administrative hearing on whether to reschedule all marijuana, including adult-use products, was scheduled to conclude in mid-July 2026. By leaving the ratio open until it files, the board keeps room to adjust the split once that proceeding’s direction is clearer. Brill tied the earlier DEA registration to the same wager, saying Ascend remained optimistic about what could follow as the hearing got underway.

For now, the reverse split is a proposal, not a listing. The company has cautioned there is no guarantee it will win an exchange listing or that a higher share price will hold. Curaleaf and Verano finished their splits weeks ago and still trade over the counter, a reminder that clearing the price bar is only the first gate. What shareholders decide on August 28 determines whether Ascend reaches the next one.