WisdomTree, Inc. (NYSE:WT) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

William Peck: Yes. And hopefully, everyone can hear me all right. Thanks for the question. Yes, I think a slight extension in terms of the date of going in the App Store, some of that’s just in terms of our beta testing process, technology build. So just a slight extension there, no kind of significant changes by any means. The other thing I’d add is, this is a regulated product. We’re dealing with state-by-state money transmitter regulators and they’ve certainly had their hands full with some of the news flow last year, which may just cause a slight delay in terms of their ability to grant us licenses and things like that. So that’s the answer on the slight delay side. In terms of the functionality side, so we’ve got nine funds launched, digital funds launched today as well as the dollar and gold token.

And we’ve also filed for some other funds that you can check on the prospectuses that have been filed with the SEC, which should hopefully give you a sense of kind of the breadth of this curated investor experience that we’re going to be offering through the app. So very curated, user-friendly investing experience covering all asset classes, whether that’s U.S. equities, whether that’s commodities like gold or whether that’s crypto as well and certainly a strength in fixed income which gets into the second point of where we think we’re really adding value, which, especially with rates are where they are today, cash management being something that people can really use this for and using this investments fund style of investing Sorry for the background noise.

And so in order to get a great cash management experience. So that’s where we’re adding value, and it’s something that we’re quite excited for.

Michael Cyprys: Great. And just a follow-up on that, if I could, on WisdomTree Prime. Could you maybe just expand on how much of the expenses in 2022 or the run rate, how much of that was coming from or related to WisdomTree Prime. And when you think about your outlook for expenses in 2023, how much of that or the growth is related to WisdomTree Prime? Just trying to get a sense of how much of it’s adding to the expense base.

Bryan Edmiston: Michael, I’ll take that one. It’s Bryan. Yes. Look, our digital spend is embedded in our comp and discretionary spending guidance. From recollection, our guidance last year, it was about $11 million to $12 million. We’d say it’s high teens this year. And the primary reason for that difference is just the planned uplift in spend for marketing. We’ve been disciplined in our spending and if we were to see a significant uptick in the future, it should be because of success that we’re seeing on the platform.

Michael Cyprys: Great. Thank you.

Operator: Our next question is from the line of Brennan Hawken with UBS. Please proceed with your question.

Brennan Hawken: Good morning. Thanks for taking my question. I know there’s a lot of focus on Prime understandably, but I’d actually like to jump in the DeLorean and go back to the future today. We’ve seen Japanese and European markets really perform well in the year-end and then so far year-to-date. And that’s been coupled with some weakness emerging in U.S. in U.S. dollar. So is it a better market for your currency-hedged products, the international ones, hedge and DXJ. It seems like the flows are negative and have been negative. But have you considered ramping marketing for those products? Are you beginning to see more interest? And there are a lot of firms that are advocating for the continued outperformance of those international markets. So is there an opportunity maybe to partner with some of those firms?

Jonathan Steinberg: Jeremy, why don’t you take the market-related question?