Michigan is the second largest cannabis market in the country and still growing, with more than 800 provisioning centers competing largely on price. Bank-to-bank ACH lets Michigan operators charge the full basket total rather than cash-back increments, settling next day on federally regulated banking rails with no card network in the transaction.
The short version
- Michigan did roughly $3.49B in 2025 legal cannabis sales, second only to California, and grew about 6%.
- Around 822 dispensaries operate in the state, on some of the lowest retail prices in the country.
- Low prices mean thin margins, which makes held funds and lost acceptance expensive.
- Bank-to-bank ACH runs on federally regulated banking rails, with next-day settlement.
The Michigan market, in numbers
Michigan recorded roughly $3.49 billion in legal cannabis sales in 2025, second only to California, on growth of about 6%. That combination is unusual: most large markets are contracting, and Michigan is not.
The state has around 822 licensed dispensaries, regulated by the Cannabis Regulatory Agency, serving both adult-use and medical customers. Michigan also runs one of the lowest effective cannabis tax rates in the country, and retail prices are correspondingly among the lowest nationally.
The state draws meaningful cross-border traffic from neighbouring states without adult-use markets, which concentrates volume near state lines.
Why card processing closes here too
The mechanism is national. Card networks require every merchant to be classified with a four-digit merchant category code when an acquiring bank boards the account, and there is no code for state-licensed cannabis. A CRA-licensed provisioning center accepting cards is coded as a business it is not, and network monitoring is designed to find that mismatch.
Michigan's regulatory maturity does not change this. State licensing determines whether you can operate; card network operating rules are written against federal law, which has not moved. The pattern is the same in Detroit as anywhere else: the account boards, it works, monitoring flags it, and the account terminates with funds held.
Cashless ATM and PIN debit programmes are widespread in Michigan and carry the same underlying structure regardless of how they are presented.
Bank-to-bank ACH as the alternative
ACH moves money directly between the customer's bank account and the merchant's, on federally regulated banking rails. There is no card network in the transaction, so no merchant category code applies and there is no network monitoring comparing behaviour against a coded category.
At the counter the customer scans a QR code with their phone camera, connects their bank once in about thirty seconds, and confirms. No app download. Every purchase after that is a single confirmation, typically under twenty seconds. Greencard Payments platform data puts the repeat rate at roughly 87%. Funds settle next day into your own account, and cash acceptance is unaffected.
Ticket size in a low-price market
Michigan's low prices mean the constraint on basket size is often what the customer has on them rather than what they want. Cash limits the basket to the wallet, and cashless ATM limits it to rounded cash-back increments with change handed back.
Paying from a connected bank account removes both constraints, because the exact basket total is charged. In a market competing on price and volume, basket size is the lever that is actually available.
Delivery, online and wholesale
Michigan supports delivery and online ordering, and both are typically the weakest links in a payment setup built around a counter terminal. SMS pay links settle a delivery order before the vehicle leaves, and e-commerce prepay collects the full basket at online checkout rather than reserving inventory against nothing.
On the supply side, Michigan's large grower and processor base still settles wholesale largely in cash and cheques. B2B invoicing on the same platform settles against a specific invoice, next day, with recurring billing for standing orders, and transactions post to QuickBooks automatically.
Availability
Seay Payments is an Independent Sales Organization. We do not process payments, handle onboarding, or provide ongoing merchant support; we connect licensed operators to the platform and to the team that runs it. Bank-to-bank ACH acceptance through Greencard Payments is available to licensed cannabis businesses in Michigan, and the demo works through your actual numbers.