Bypassing B3: Why Brazil's Tech Giants Keep Migrating to New York
High domestic interest rates and a frozen local IPO market are driving Brazil's top financial technology companies to list directly on US exchanges.
For nearly five years, the trading floor of Brazil’s domestic stock exchange, the B3 in São Paulo, has been quiet. A persistent high-interest-rate environment has frozen the local market for initial public offerings (IPOs), leaving domestic investors with few new options. The historic drought was only briefly broken in May 2026, when the gas infrastructure company Compass Gás e Energia completed a R$ 2.8 billion listing—and even then, it had to price at the very bottom of its target range.
For Brazil’s fast-growing technology and financial services sectors, waiting for the B3 to warm up is no longer a viable strategy. Instead, the country's most innovative firms are bypassing their home exchange entirely, packing their bags for New York. By listing directly on the NYSE and NASDAQ, these companies are seeking the deep pools of global capital and international valuation premiums that the local market currently cannot provide.
This migration is not a new trend, but it has accelerated into a structural shift. Pioneered by digital banking giant Nubank (NYSE) and payments firm StoneCo (NASDAQ), the path to New York has become the default blueprint for Brazilian tech. In early 2026, two of the country's prominent digital banks, PicPay and Agibank, chose to debut on US exchanges rather than wait for local conditions to improve. PicPay raised $434 million on NASDAQ in January, while Agibank overcame volatile market conditions to pull off a $240 million NYSE listing in February.
The Search for Liquidity and Direct Access
The primary driver behind this corporate exodus is Brazil's macroeconomic landscape. To combat stubborn inflation, the Central Bank of Brazil has kept its benchmark Selic rate at double-digit levels, making fixed-income assets highly attractive to local investors and draining liquidity from domestic equities. In contrast, US markets offer access to global institutional funds that are far more comfortable valuing high-growth technology companies.
Furthermore, companies are restructuring to make themselves more attractive to foreign retail and institutional players. Digital banking platform Inter & Co went as far as migrating its corporate domicile to the United States. By listing its Class A common shares directly on NASDAQ, Inter bypassed the traditional Brazilian Depositary Receipt (BDR) structure entirely, giving global investors direct equity exposure.
This strategy has paid off in market visibility. Recently, analysts at JPMorgan Chase upgraded their outlook on Inter & Co (NASDAQ: INTR), citing stronger earnings expectations and a revamped model for Brazilian financials. The positive market reception triggered a sharp rise in the stock, demonstrating the kind of rapid valuation adjustment that is rarely seen on the sluggish B3.
What it touches
The ongoing migration directly impacts the B3 exchange (B3SA3), which loses out on lucrative listing fees and trading volumes from the country's most dynamic corporate sector. Conversely, US-listed exchange-traded funds tracking Brazilian equities, such as the iShares MSCI Brazil ETF (EWZ), are increasingly influenced by the performance of tech and financial firms traded in New York rather than São Paulo. For international investors, the trend means that the best way to gain exposure to Brazil's digital economy is through US brokerages, holding shares of companies like Nubank (NU), StoneCo (STNE), and Inter & Co (INTR).