WisdomTree (WT) Q1 2026 Earnings Transcript

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DATE

Friday, May 1, 2026 at 11 a.m. ET

CALL PARTICIPANTS

• Chief Financial Officer — Bryan Edmiston
• President and Chief Operating Officer — Robert Lilien
• Chief Executive Officer — Jonathan Steinberg
• Chief Investment Officer — Jeremy Schwartz
• Head of Digital Assets — William Peck

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TAKEAWAYS

• Assets Under Management (AUM) -- Reached a record $152.6 billion, up 6% from year-end, marking five consecutive quarters of record AUM, with additional subsequent growth to approximately $164.3 billion, an 8% increase after March 31, including $4 billion from the Atlantic House acquisition.
• Net Inflows -- $5.9 billion globally during the quarter, representing a 17% annualized organic growth rate; flows included $3.1 billion in Europe, $2.6 billion in the U.S, $100 million in digital assets, and $75 million in private assets.
• Revenue -- $159.5 million, up 8% sequentially from Q4 and 48% year over year, driven by higher AUM and increased other revenues.
• Average Advisory Fee -- Increased by 1 basis point as flows moved toward higher-fee products.
• Atlantic House Acquisition -- Closed at a $200 million purchase price, adding approximately $4 billion AUM at a 53 basis-point advisory fee yield and approximately 95 basis-point total revenue yield; expected to lift firm-wide revenue yield by nearly 2 basis points; financed through new 4.5% coupon convertible notes with a $21.58 conversion price.
• Other Revenues -- $16.4 million, up from $13 million prior quarter, primarily from higher European AUM and trading activity; contribution included $8 million from Ceres (with $5.2 million in management fees and $3 million in performance fees).
• Adjusted Operating Margin -- Expanded by 770 basis points year over year.
• Adjusted Net Income -- $40.6 million, or $0.27 per share; excludes loss on extinguishment of convertible notes due to proactive refinancing of 2026 and 2029 notes.
• Guidance Updates -- Gross margin range raised by 1 percentage point to 83%-84%; discretionary spending guidance increased by $3 million due to Atlantic House; compensation-to-revenue ratio unchanged at 26%-28% but expected near the upper end due to acquisition.
• Expense and Interest Guidance -- Third-party distribution expense now expected in the $20 million-$24 million range; annual interest expense forecasted at $53 million, with quarterly expense declining from $15 million to $14 million through year-end; interest income guidance increased to $10 million for the year.
• Tax Rate -- Adjusted tax rate now projected at 24%-25% compared to prior 24%, reflecting impact of Atlantic House acquisition.
• Shares Outstanding -- Weighted average diluted shares at 152 million in Q1; expected to rise to 155 million-158 million in Q2 due to convertible note refinancing, then decline to about 154 million in the second half after planned retirement of remaining convertible notes.
• Digital Asset Business (WTGXX) -- AUM in tokenized money market fund reached $867 million with $98 million of inflows in the quarter; noted “unique” SEC-exemptive relief allowing intraday 24/7 secondary market trading via broker-dealer, with a reported current yield of 3.5%.
• UCITS Platform -- Year-to-date inflows over $3.4 billion, with AUM up more than 26%.
• Atlantic House Future Plans -- Plans to launch 15-20 new funds leveraging Atlantic House capabilities in U.S. and Europe over 24 months, with targeted expense ratios between 55-85 basis points.
• Ceres Platform -- Received $75 million of inflows; long-term target remains $750 million over five years in private assets.

SUMMARY

Management provided clear strategic rationale linking recent acquisitions to higher revenue yield and growing geographic reach. The company secured SEC-exemptive relief enabling its tokenized money market fund to be traded intraday, 24/7, through a broker-dealer, highlighting a distinctive feature amongst U.S. asset managers. Forward guidance incorporates the Atlantic House acquisition, resulting in upward revisions to gross margin and interest income expectations. The company’s distribution platform is expanding, with transactional and AUM-based revenue streams showing increased trajectory, and future fund launches anticipated to broaden the product lineup in both the U.S. and Europe.

• Jonathan Steinberg said the company is “not pursuing acquisitions for the sake of being acquisitive” and “the fit has to be clear and the transaction has to strengthen the business in tangible ways.”
• William Peck emphasized “vertical integration” as a key competitive advantage in digital assets and indicated ongoing discussions about licensing elements of the technology stack to other institutions.
• Guidance for weighted average shares reflects temporary dilution from refinancing, expected to partially reverse after the retirement of convertible debt later in the year.
• Management described Ceres as adding uncorrelated private asset exposure with an “attractive” earnings profile; future ETF launches embedding private assets—such as farmland—are planned pursuant to 1940 Act guidelines.

INDUSTRY GLOSSARY

• UCITS: Undertakings for Collective Investment in Transferable Securities; a regulated EU investment fund structure widely distributed in Europe.
• Tokenized Money Market Fund: A money market fund whose ownership shares are represented as digital tokens, enabling blockchain-based transactions and 24/7 trading capabilities.
• Defined Outcome Fund: An investment product structured to deliver pre-set outcomes (such as specific levels of return or risk protection) over a defined period, often using options or derivatives.
• SMAs: Separately managed accounts; investment portfolios managed on behalf of individual investors, distinct from pooled investment vehicles.
• Bespoke Investment Solutions: Customized financial products engineered to meet the unique objectives of specific clients, often involving complex structuring and derivatives.
• Revenue Yield: The annualized revenue generated as a percentage of average assets under management, often measured in basis points for asset managers.

Full Conference Call Transcript

Bryan Edmiston: Thank you, Jessica, and good morning, everyone. I'll begin with a review of our first quarter results, followed by updates to our forward-looking guidance before turning the call over to Jarrett and Jono for additional business updates. . Our assets under management reached a record $152.6 billion, marking our fifth consecutive quarter of record AUM and up 6% from year-end driven by net inflows and market appreciation. Growth was broad-based with record AUM across our U.S., European and digital asset platforms. We generated $5.9 billion of net inflows globally, a 17% annualized organic growth rate, including $3.1 billion in Europe, $2.6 billion in the U.S., $100 million in digital assets and $75 million in private assets.

Flows were led by our international equity exposures, including our Japan strategies and UCITS thematic products with particular strength in areas such as our European defense and rare earth funds. Fixed income was also a key contributor and our leveraged and inverse suite also generated meaningful inflows, reflecting elevated volatility in the commodity markets. Notably, flows were skewed toward higher fee products resulting in a 1 basis point increase in our average advisory fee during the quarter. We also just completed our acquisition of Atlantic House, a U.K.-based asset manager with approximately $4 billion in AUM, generating 53 basis points in advisory fees from its defined outcome and derivatives driven strategies.

The business also generates complementary revenues including 25 basis points on $1.5 billion of AUA in managed models as well as structuring fees from bespoke investment solutions, which totaled $13 million during 2025. Taken together, these revenue streams represent an overall revenue yield of approximately 95 basis points. The purchase price is $200 million, which has been financed through recently issued convertible notes. This transaction is expected to increase our overall revenue yield by almost 2 basis points is modestly accretive and further enhances our product capabilities and distribution footprint across Europe, while supporting higher quality revenue growth over time.

Overall, our record AUM and strong organic growth underscore the strength of our business, while our disciplined approach to strategic expansion positions us well to continue driving growth and long-term shareholder value. Global AUM currently stands at approximately $164.3 billion, up almost $12 billion or 8% from March 31, driven by favorable market conditions, approximately $800 million of net inflows and the inclusion of Atlantic house. Next slide. Revenues were $159.5 million during the quarter, an increase of 8% from the fourth quarter and 48% from the prior year quarter driven by higher AUM and growth in other revenues.

Other revenues of $16.4 million reflect higher AUM and elevated trading activity in our European products, up from almost $13 million recognized in the prior quarter. Results versus the prior year quarter also include approximately $8 million of revenue contribution from Ceres. Ceres' contribution included management fees and performance fees of $5.2 million and $3 million, respectively. Performance fees reflect normal seasonality tied to performance-based fee structures along with limited activity in the solar portfolio during the quarter. Our adjusted operating margin has expanded 770 basis points when compared to the prior year quarter. Adjusted net income was $40.6 million or $0.27 per share.

Adjusted net income excludes the loss on extinguishment of convertible notes related to the repurchase of a significant portion of our 2026 and 2029 maturities. This refinancing reflects a proactive repositioning of our capital structure, replacing lower conversion price instruments with new convertible notes at a 4.5% coupon and $21.58 per share conversion price, providing meaningful headroom and reducing potential dilution. This transaction also supports funding for the Atlantic House acquisition, aligning our financing strategy with our broader growth and capital allocation priorities.

As a reminder, the Atlantic House acquisition is expected to add approximately $4 billion in AUM, generating 53 basis points in advisory fees, along with complementary revenues from managed models as well as structuring fees from bespoke investment solutions. The transaction closed this morning. Next slide. Now a few comments on our forward-looking guidance, which includes the impact of the Atlantic House acquisition on our expense base. Our compensation to revenue ratio of 26% to 28% remains unchanged, and we expect to trend towards the upper half of the range, reflecting the addition of Atlantic House which is accretive to our operating margins and earnings, but carries a modestly higher compensation ratio.

We are also increasing our gross margin guidance by 1 percentage point, now ranging from 83% to 84%, reflecting continued operating leverage from organic growth as well as the Atlantic House acquisition. We are also increasing our discretionary spending guidance by $3 million to reflect the inclusion of Atlantic House. Our third-party distribution expense is expected to range from $20 million to $24 million, driven by higher AUM and elevated trading activity primarily across our European platforms, with commodity market volatility influencing where we fall within the range. Interest expense is forecasted to be approximately $53 million for the year, reflecting our current capital structure and the anticipated retirement of our remaining 2026 and 2029 notes this summer.

Quarterly interest expense is expected to be approximately $15 million in the second quarter declining to approximately $14 million in both the third and fourth quarters. We are increasing our interest income guidance by $2 million to $10 million for the year, reflecting the level of our interest-earning assets in the forecasted rate environment. Our adjusted tax rate is expected to be approximately 24% to 25% compared to 24% previously, reflecting the addition of Atlantic House. And finally, our weighted average diluted shares were 152 million in the first quarter.

We expect shares to increase to approximately 155 million to 158 million in the second quarter reflecting the full impact of shares issued in connection with our convertible note refinancing and then declining to approximately 154 million in the second half of the year, following the retirement of the remainder of our 2026 and 2029 notes, which we anticipate settling for cash. That's all I have. I will now turn the call over to Jarrett.

Robert Lilien: All right. Thank you, Bryan, and good morning. This was another quarter marked by steady broad-based execution and continued momentum across the business. The results were strong, but more importantly, they reflect the consistency of a strategy that is delivering and scaling. As Bryan just highlighted, we generated nearly $6 billion of net inflows in the quarter including $2.6 billion in March, making this our strongest quarter since Q1 of 2023. And what stands out the most, though, is the quality and the breadth of those flows. . We saw inflows across 7 of our 8 major product categories, reinforcing that WisdomTree is increasingly winning as a diversified platform rather than tied to any single product theme or market call.

And that matters because it demonstrates that we can generate growth across market environments and not just when conditions are favorable. This quarter also highlighted how clients are using us. They engage with us across geographies, asset classes and use cases from international developed equity to fixed income to leverage strategies to digital assets. And in March, in particular, we saw a bear market playbook unfold in real time across our platform. Clients were allocating to both offense and defense, income, liquidity and hedging strategies alongside risk-taking exposures.

And what stood out in that environment was how well the platform held up despite an extremely volatile backdrop, AUM ended the quarter at approximately $153 billion and has since recovered to $164 billion including $4 billion from Atlantic House. And that resilience speaks directly to the strength and utility of our product lineup. Products like USFR continue to serve as an important portfolio ballast and more broadly, you can see the key drivers of that stability and growth. Our UCITS platform continues to lead with over $3.4 billion of inflows year-to-date, and AUM up over 26%. Portfolio Solutions continues to gain traction as a structural growth engine.

And in digital, we generated $98 million of inflows in Q1 with AUM reaching a record $867 million, driven primarily by our tokenized money market fund. Importantly, the story there is evolving. It's increasingly about real use cases and adoption and not just infrastructure. Alongside that organic progress, we also continued to make measured strategic progress. Ceres is now part of the base business, and with the closing of Atlantic house this morning, we are continuing to build out the platform in a disciplined way. Both transactions are consistent with how we think about capital allocation and creating faster, more durable long-term growth, which John will walk through in more detail in a moment.

Overall, there's a difference between having a strategy and delivering on it. And what we are doing is delivering, and we built a proven track record of consistent execution quarter-by-quarter, we are strengthening the platform and building real momentum. And with that, let me turn it over to Jono.

Jonathan Steinberg: Thank you, Jarrett, and good morning, everybody. What Bryan and Jarrett just walked through really speaks to the strength of the business we have built. We delivered another quarter of broad-based execution in a volatile environment with strong inflows, with resilient assets and continued traction across the platforms. I think the most important takeaway is that this was not driven by any 1 product or 1 strategy or 1 market backdrop. It reflects a business that is becoming more diversified, more durable and increasingly more capable of compounding growth over time. That is exactly the foundation we want in place as we continue to build WisdomTree.

That brings me to the 2 transactions we have recently closed; Seres and Atlantic House. We are not pursuing acquisitions for the sake of being acquisitive. M&A for us is a complement to organic growth, not the core strategy. The bar is high, the fit has to be clear and the transaction has to strengthen the business in tangible ways. At a high level, the logic is simple - we want companies that help us diversify the business by adding differentiated products and capabilities we do not have today. We want them to enhance the economics of the firm by bringing higher revenue yields and stronger margin characteristics.

We want them to accelerate growth, by giving us more ways to win flows, deepen client relationships and extend those offerings more broadly across WisdomTree. Ceres is a very good example of that approach. It brought us into private assets to an uncorrelated asset class, and it did so in a way that adds attractive economics to the business. It expands our capabilities in an area where we see real client demand while also improving the earnings profile of the firm. Atlantic House fits the same logic. It adds differentiated derivatives capability expands our reach, particularly in the U.K. wealth channel and strengthens our ability to deliver more outcome-oriented solutions for clients.

It also helps globalize our portfolio solutions business by extending that footprint into the U.K. and accelerating the international expansion of that offering. From an economic standpoint, Atlantic House brings a revenue yield of approximately 95 basis points which lifts our overall firm-wide revenue yield by about 2 basis points to roughly 43.5 basis points. Just as importantly, it brings expertise and solutions that we believe can be scaled through the broader global WisdomTree platform. So again, this is not simply about adding assets, it's about adding enhanced expertise and differentiated offerings with better economics and greater growth potential. Stepping back, what these deals really show is how we are continuing to strengthen the business.

We are broadening the platform, improving the quality of our revenue and adding areas of expertise that we believe can help accelerate firm-wide organic growth over time. That is why both Ceres and Atlantic House fit so well with where we are taking wisdom trade. We are still in the early stages of integrating and scaling these capabilities, but the fit is clear, the rationale is clear and the opportunity is clear. We are building a business with more ways to win better economics and greater earnings power. That is how we will continue to deliver strong top line growth, continued margin expansion and even faster earnings per share growth over time. Thank you.

Now let's open up the call to questions.

Operator: [Operator Instructions] Our first questions come from the line of Wilma Burdis with Raymond James.

Wilma Jackson Burdis: Could you talk about the advantages of WisdomTree's tokenized money market fund compared to other non-tokenized yield-generating options with respect to your new partnership with stable fix?

Jonathan Steinberg: Absolutely. Thank you for the question. Will, you pick that up?

William Peck: Yes, absolutely. So Page 11 of the deck talks about our -- we're positioned to win business through a combination of the functionality that we've got and our strong U.S. regulatory positioning. So unlike a lot of the tokenized money market funds that are out there, WTGXXRs is a 1940 Act fund sold by prospectus in the U.S. It's available to U.S. retail, U.S. businesses and global businesses as well. So just by virtue of doing that and also having kind of strong functionality around that.

Also this quarter, we announced that we got an exemptive relief from the SEC to have the money market fund trade view of broker-dealer in the secondary market on an intraday 24/7 basis, which is like truly unique functionality, especially in the 4 here in the U.S. So we feel really strong about our positioning of our tokenized money market fund, and we're establishing a lot of partnerships and relationships. Stable C is a great example. Stable C as a start-up run by some former blocked employees, that's focused and their payments experts, they're focused on bringing payments use cases to small- and medium-sized businesses throughout the United States.

And like I would not have thought about a small business in the U.S. as being kind of underbanked but kind of through these conversations, we've been learning a lot about how, hey, getting access to a tokenized money market fund yielding 3.5% today is much, much better than what they were getting through maybe nonexistent savings accounts paying essentially nothing, right? So it's just showing kind of new use cases in us kind of building distribution relationships, both in TradFi in addition to kind of like D5 channels where we've been focusing today. So that's some of the ways that we're differentiated and why we feel really good about our positioning right now.

Wilma Jackson Burdis: Great. And then are there opportunities to generate higher fees on model portfolios as WisdomTree gain scale and the adviser relationships? And could you provide some detail on the overall relationship dynamics there, especially given the additional model AUM from Atlantic House?

Jonathan Steinberg: Jerrett, I think that starts with you and maybe Jeremy.

Robert Lilien: Sure. I think in general, yes, the model opportunity for us globally does a number of things. First of all, though, it brings stickier assets. deepens the relationship with our partners, and it does lead us to a nice stable mix of WisdomTree funds that are in those portfolios. In addition to that, as you add sort of horsepower from Atlantic House, you add even further sort of value add that as Jono sort of covered in prepared remarks, comes at a higher revenue capture. . So overall, these things, including SMAs, by the way, which is another area where we're pushing forward quite nicely.

All of these things just lead to higher quality flows I think, with a tilt towards higher revenue capture and just better quality of earnings.

Wilma Jackson Burdis: If I have time for 1 more. We saw other revenues were strong in the quarter. Could you talk about what contributed to that? And if there's going to be additional growth there?

Bryan Edmiston: Yes. So this is Bryan and thank you for the question. You're right. Our Other revenues were $16 million this quarter versus $13 million last quarter. And again, that was driven by higher AUM and transaction fees, largely tied to our European commodity products. And if volatility persists, we could see similar levels of that revenue growth going forward. About 40% of that line item is the transaction fee element, 60% is AUM base. So there is some variability and volatility there as well. The other thing we don't want you to overlook is Atlantic House and that acquisition -- in 2025, Atlantic House generated about $16 million of revenue between its models and product structuring business.

That revenue is also going to run through this line item going forward. So if you were to prorate that as of today, it would be about $11 million of incremental revenue.

Jonathan Steinberg: Let me just add on the Atlantic House, there sort of derivative solutions that they've been doing just in the U.K. They have really established a business that has scaled. So they've done over $20 billion of structured solutions delivered across more than 120 clients. And we do believe that, that solution clients that want to want these sort of bespoke defined outcome for themselves. It's sort of like in almost like an SMA, but not the SMA structure, but very tailored to the clients' needs has both broad European and U.S. appeal. And so that other revenue line, we really do think should grow not just for the rest of this year, but significantly in 2027. Anything else, Wilma?

Operator: Our next questions come from the line of Chris Kotowski with Oppenheimer.

Unknown Analyst: This is actually John Coffey on for Chris. I just had a couple of questions. One is on Page 4. I think when you mentioned your 95 basis point yield for Atlantic House. Is that the right way to look at revenues going forward? Or do you think it should be -- or should I really look at some of the constituent parts like the models under advisement, yield and restructuring fees, like should this be really modeled out on sort of a more granular level? Or is that 95% a pretty good way to think about it going forward?

Jonathan Steinberg: I'll start but maybe -- so I think about the business in revenue yield terms. It's very, very important to me that we grow our revenue yield. I think it's really one of the -- and it ties to even product consideration. So you think that we're 43.5 basis points on $165 billion today. Atlantic House was 95 basis points of revenue yield, Ceres 200 plus and just know that we are focused on it as part of our strategic initiatives. So now there is some volatility that is outside of our control, meaning asset mix, where the market goes. But from what we can control, that is a metric that we are laser-focused on.

But Bryan I'll turn it to you...

Bryan Edmiston: Yes. So -- from a modeling standpoint, I would suggest, though, just not looking at it as 1 overall revenue yield, but looking at the component part. So that advisory fee line is going to grow based upon the AUM on our platform, excluding Ceres AUM at whatever our revenue capture is in that particular line item. And again, that revenue capture ticked up 1 basis point this quarter. I would think about Ceres separately, modeling those management fees at 1% of AUM. And then the performance fee is another variable element to be taken into consideration as well.

And then when it comes down to the last line item, our other revenue line, again, a lot of that has been driven by the activity that we're seeing out in Europe in our commodity products. You have a trend over the last few quarters in that particular line item. And as I just mentioned in the prior response, Atlantic House is also going to factor into that line item going forward, too.

Unknown Analyst: All right. Great. Very helpful. And just 1 last question. When we think about Atlantic House, will that show up on your IR page, you have your daily AUMs? Is that something that at some point in the future, we'll start to see AUM from Atlantic House contributing to those? Or is this something like Ceres where it's sort of treated a little bit differently than your other ETPs?

Bryan Edmiston: We should be having that AUM as part of what we're reporting over -- in the not-too-distant future. We need a little bit of time to just get integrated.

Unknown Analyst: Jeremy Schwartz, could you just add a little bit on a future product around Atlantic House, which will also obviously contribute to the AUM on the IR side. But just from a strategy and even how it ties into revenue yields?

Jeremy Schwartz: Yes. They currently have a bunch of use funds in addition to that derivative solutions business that Jono talked about, we definitely plan to be part of the global synergies is extending that franchise both to the market as well as the U.S. market. We definitely have plans to be aggressive with the product road map. And when you look at where has there been big growth in ETFs, the fun you let from income over or protection type strategy we're calling it defined outcome and sort of target type return we can do in many different asset classes.

So we have targets to launch both in the U.S. and Europe as many as 15 to 20 funds over the next 24 months. And so we're going to have a big family. We're excited to be working with their team. It's a very strong, actively managed within them, and we think we can really position ourselves well versus the market in that space. So you'll definitely see a big product road map coming from us in both markets.

Operator: Our next questions come from the line of Michael Grondahl with Northland Securities.

Mike Grondahl: First question is with your not brand new, but newer digital money market fund, WTG XX, that is growing like a weed, but it seems like there's a lot of demand for that product. I wanted to understand a little bit better how you're marketing that? What's kind of that communication strategy just to get the word out?

Jonathan Steinberg: Well, that's you, obviously, but touch on its use cases as well because it's being used differently in the world of on chain than just how it's being used in the mutual fund format.

William Peck: Yes, absolutely. Thanks for the question. Yes, it's continuing to grow strongly. Even since this deck was dated as of March 31, at least the AUM. We're up another $50 million in April, and assets primarily into that fund. So it's continuing to grow. WisdomTree Connect users, we had 29 at year-end. There's 41 on the page as of March 31. That number is higher today as well. . So we are seeing kind of continued strong growth in that. Like I said, we distribute both to U.S. retail through WisdomTree Prime, also to global businesses and global platforms really through WisdomTree Connect. Today, 90%, 95% of the AUM is through the WisdomTree Connect platform.

Really, that's focused on serving kind of different use cases that we've spoken about. It could be a stablecoin issuer. We've seen a lot of them post Genoa being implemented, looking to hold WTGXX's reserved asset for stable coins that they issued. WTG XX is clearly within the Genius Act, sorry, the Genius Act is a compliant reserve asset. It's treasury management for stablecoin native businesses. So this is exactly what Stable C is helping to serve. And the last piece is really around collateral mobility, right?

The ability to use WTGXX in the yield bearing form of collateral rather than just sitting in stable coins, if you're doing a crypto transaction, also increasingly playing in other kind of non-crypto related transactions. WTX being a yield burn form of collateral that's able to be moved instantly, right, which gives people participating in that transaction kind of makes it much more capital efficient for them. So we're seeing actually considerable growth in that use case as well, onboarding new clients focused on that. So it's really those use cases where the tokenized Money Market Fund is adding a lot of value for people. It's not just a buy and hold sort of thing.

It's about making it more useful serving different clients, really the Onchain community growing into more of the traditional finance community as well, that is aren't able to be served well from a kind of traditional money market fund.

Mike Grondahl: Got it. And then, John, when talking about Atlantic House in those funds, you had mentioned the broad European appeal, U.S. appeal -- how should we think about you rolling out to those 2 additional markets? .

Jonathan Steinberg: So we obviously launched 20, 30 funds a year every year. There will be a significant number of new fund launches in the next 18 to 24 months dedicated to the capabilities that we have just acquired around active derivative solutions, options-based strategies sometimes called buffer funds or to find outcome funds. It's a broad, broad category, more than $100 billion globally in ETFs. We think that sort of what's in the market today for the most part is like a 1.0. There's real room for differentiation. It's a little more developed here in the U.S., but still tremendous room for differentiation and growth almost open fields for the European team.

The team that we acquired will play not just the portfolio management role, but they'll be part of the sales process really showing global clients, the -- they're very strong communicators. They really will give us, I think, an ability to we really raised assets against the funds that we're launching. I think that if I had a range of expense ratio. It's probably between 55 and 85 basis points for the types of products that we'll be launching, which is above our expense ratio average now. So very, very excited about putting the Atlantic has team to work. I hope that answers the question.

Mike Grondahl: Yes. No, that's helpful.

Operator: Our next questions come from the line of George Sutton with Craig-Hallum.

Unknown Analyst: It is Logan on for George. Can you hear me all right?

Robert Lilien: Yes. .

Unknown Analyst: Yes. Awesome. I want to follow up there on the digital asset side. Well, I wondered if you could just kind of walk through the priorities there. I mean, I think for a long time, it was a bit more of a consumer-focused effort, -- it seems like a lot of the momentum now is on the institutional side. And then there's also been talk about times about white labeling. So I wondered if you could just kind of rank those for us. And then also the stable seed partnership is nice to see. Do you see kind of more opportunity for sort of distribution partnerships out there similar to that?

William Peck: Yes. Happy to take that. So I wouldn't really rank them. I mean for us, it's about growing AUM and growing the number of people that are using the platform. So that's tied directly to the metrics that we have on the page for you guys. That's what I look at every day to see if we're being successful. Are we driving AUM growth are we driving the number of people using the platform. In the future, and you started to see this with the WTGXX announcement, there's going to be other types of transactions, other types of revenue streams, that we're going to see continue to grow over time as well.

And that will be really like a third metric that I look at. So we don't kind of stack rank is 1 more important than the other. They all kind of are servicing as part of that. What I would say is unique about like digital asset and blockchain as we're seeing -- we're going to be servicing retail beyond just WisdomTree Prime. WisdomTree Prime is a key priority for us. We want to continue to drive people and use that platform, that app we're able to serve metamaskwalet holders, other self-custody wallet holders. And we want to meet people where they are. And economically, WisdomTree is indifferent. It's really about getting people to use our products and services.

So again, not really stack ranking kind of different things. It's really an all of the above driving people to invest in our funds, use our products and services.

Unknown Analyst: Will, could you just touch on because I think it's sometimes overlooked, the vertical integration of your offering, sort of your -- you've put in a lot of effort over the last 7 years. Can you just touch on the vertical integration?

William Peck: Yes, absolutely. So touch on this on Page 11 as well. But I think if you look at some kind of competitive products out there, you find that there's probably like 3 or 4 different firms that kind of comprise that stack, right? There might be a separate tokenization provider and transfer agent and then there's a separate asset manager and there might be a separate kind of stable coin conversion service or a stable point orchestrator provider -- and then WisdomTree's case, since we've invested early, we've kind of built that all kind of we have built that all ourselves, right?

So when you're buying the WisdomTree tokenized money market fund using USBC, for example, the other counterparty you're facing in that transaction is WisdomTree, right? We're able to convert the stable coin. If you wanted to trade it instantly, you can do it against our broker-dealer then you're investing in a WisdomTree managed fund. So we've built all of these capabilities ourselves, which has allowed us to win business in the areas we're competing today. It also opens up good optionality for us, and we're having active conversations around this to license elements of this technology stack to other asset managers or other people in the space.

So we feel really good about the investments we've made to kind of be in this position. I mean this is such a hot topic on Wall Street. And I speak to a lot of people. And every time I do, I just feel great about the decisions we've made and the position that we occupy in the market. And I think we're going to be continuing to kind of grow market share as more and more people are adopting this technology. More and more wallets come online, stablecoin AUM continues to grow. We're going to continue to win share in that environment.

Jonathan Steinberg: Thanks, Will. Anything else, Logan? .

Unknown Analyst: Yes. One other. That was very helpful. You mentioned kind of the lower seasonal performance fees with Ceres but it looked like the inflows were pretty strong this quarter. Just curious if you could unpack that a little bit. I mean is that just blocking and tackling by the Ceres team? Or how much of that is maybe your distribution capability starting to have an impact there?

Jonathan Steinberg: So I think this is a combination, probably you, Bryan and maybe Jeremy.

Bryan Edmiston: Yes, sure. So on the flow side, it was -- I can respond to the flow side. Let me take it and Jeremy, if there's anything else to feel free to elaborate. But -- it was a strong first quarter, $75 million in the quarter. Our first fund was closing. So the closure of that fund did accelerate flow into this particular quarter to get where investors wanted to get some money in before that fund closed, and we're focused on getting our second fund launched in the not-too-distant future. So from a flow perspective, look, we can expect variability quarter-to-quarter. We generally don't provide guidance on flows. But that said, I would say our long-term target remains unchanged.

We're targeting $750 million over 5 years, and we'll see if that ultimately proves to be conservative. On the performance fee, -- there was some seasonality there. The fee was a bit lower than it was in the fourth quarter of last year. There was some seasonality. There wasn't much solar activity this quarter. But again, we'll see some ebbs and flows in the mark, but we don't foresee any changes in the earnings power of our prior guidance. Our framework remains consistent as it relates to what we've communicated in the past.

Think about it as take your AUM, take a flow assumption, multiply it by, call it, a 7% return on average and then factor in our 15% participation rate to arrive at a performance fee and we'd say that's our baseline working assumption and then there's upside for solar and data center opportunities as well. So again, really no change versus what we had previously communicated.

Jeremy Schwartz: Yes, this is Jeremy Schwartz, our CIO. The only thing I would say on the seasonality is that the way the appraisals work is the same farms are appraised in Q1 of each Q1. And that Q1 has happened to be a little bit below performance on a regular basis, the last 4, 5 years. So I think we'd expect to sort of as the other farms continue to get appraised from Q2, Q3, Q4, they tend to be a bit higher in terms of where they have been. And so that's just for now, that what we've been seeing on the performance trend. But we remain optimistic on where things are going. .

Robert Lilien: Yes. And this is Jarrett. Let me just hop into Bryan mentioned how we closed Fund I and Fund II is on its way. Fund II is on its way, and that will be launched in the next couple of months. That is when the WisdomTree distribution team gets involved already without having the fund to market. We've got strong interest, a strong pipeline of live leads -- so we're pretty optimistic on that good track record of flows continuing.

Jonathan Steinberg: And let me just add an all foreshadow something that become increasingly important to WisdomTree in the second half of this year and in 2027, you will see, I believe, in very farmland in ETFs. As you probably know, the 40 Act does allow for up to 15% of assets in illiquid assets, and we do see appropriate in some broad commodity and real estate ETFs and opportunity to put in farmland. And so that battle of privates and ETFs is something that WisdomTree is very focused on in the -- or really the second half of this year and the coming years.

Unknown Analyst: Understood. Congrats on the continued strength, I will leave it there.

Operator: Thank you. We have reached the end of our question-and-answer session. And I would like to turn the floor back over to Jonathan Steinberg for any closing comments.

Jonathan Steinberg: Thank you. Yes, let me say something. As we approach the 20th anniversary of launching our first 20 ETFs this June, it's worth pausing to recognize just how far we've come and how well positioned we are for what comes next. Today, with $165 billion in assets under management and a global team of 400 employees, WisdomTree stands stronger than at any point in our history, the efficiency of our business model, the breadth and diversity of our product set and the distinctly entrepreneurial culture continues to differentiate us in a crowded and evolving industry. Our first quarter momentum is not an outlier.

It's the continuation of years of consistent high-quality organic growth, delivering 17% annualized organic growth across a diversified asset base in a volatile market underscores both the resilience of our platform and the strength of client demand. At the same time, expanding margins or translating that growth into meaningful earnings per share acceleration. Importantly, we are not standing still. Our investments in tokenization and private assets or opening new avenues for growth and positioning WisdomTree at the forefront of where the industry is heading. Our commitment to shareholders is clear in the numbers. we've compounded earnings per share at 30% over the past 5 years and more than 50% over multiple 3-year periods. This isn't just strong growth.

It's growth that is accelerating, driven by increasing scale and efficiency. With the impact of recent acquisitions of Ceres and Atlantic House coming online in the second quarter, we expect that acceleration to continue over the next several quarters, the trajectory is unmistakable. We are entering our next chapter from a position of strength with momentum with innovation and with discipline, all working in our favor. If the first 20 years were about building the foundation, the next 20 years will be about scaling it in ways that create even greater value for our clients and our shareholders. So I want to thank all of you for participating in today's call, and we'll speak to you next quarter. Thank you.

Operator: Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. This does now conclude today's teleconference. We appreciate your participation. You may disconnect your lines at this time, and enjoy the rest of your day.

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