Wise debuts US listing on Nasdaq, eyes $43B US opportunity
What's the deal? Wise, the London-founded money transfer company, began trading on Nasdaq on May 11 under the ticker WSE. The company maintains a secondary listing on the London Stock Exchange, where it has traded since its 2021 direct listing.
The move gives Wise access to what it calls its biggest market opportunity. Co-founder and chief executive officer Kristo Käärmann said the US listing will "help us accelerate our mission, helping to bring more of Wise to everyone in the US, as customers and as owners."
Why now? Wise is riding strong momentum. In the financial year ended March 31, 2026, it processed $243B in cross-border volume — up 31% year-on-year — and generated $2.5B in net revenue, a 19% increase. Customer holdings hit $39B, up 40%.
The company served nearly 19 million customers, including banks like Morgan StanleyDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → and Standard CharteredDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →. It estimates it saved those customers more than $3.3B in fees.
Chair David Wells, formerly of Netflix, framed the listing as a way to tap "the world's deepest and most liquid capital market" while aligning the company with its largest growth opportunity.
What could go wrong? Dual listings add regulatory complexity. Wise now reports under both IFRS and US GAAP, which means additional compliance costs and potential investor confusion during the transition. The company published a translation of its historical IFRS figures to US GAAP equivalents alongside the listing.
There's also the risk that the LSE listing becomes an afterthought. London has watched several high-profile tech companies shift their primary listings stateside — a trend that won't comfort those already worried about the exchange's declining relevance.
The signal: Wise's Nasdaq debut underscores a persistent pull of US capital markets on European-built fintech champions, even those that once championed London's public markets. With mature banking partners like Morgan Stanley and Standard Chartered already embedded in its platform, Wise is leveraging its infrastructure play — not just consumer transfers — to deepen its US foothold. The 40% year-on-year surge in customer holdings to $39B suggests the company is increasingly becoming a place where money sits, not just moves, raising the strategic stakes of its stateside push.
Read more: newsroom.wise.com
