Brazil’s stock exchange, B3, has had a museum open to the public since 2022, tucked inside its historic headquarters in downtown São Paulo. It’s called MUB3, occupies the mezzanine, and is, in truth, worth a visit — modern, interactive, and full of stories about the country’s capital markets. Some say it may soon welcome new exhibits: not only those who built the market, but also those now leaving it. The latest examples are Gol and Banco Pan, both preparing to delist. The former, weighed down by debt; the latter, absorbed by BTG Pactual.
Since the 2021 IPO boom, B3 has lost more than 35 listed companies, taking the exchange to its lowest count in nearly a decade. In 2024 alone, 14 firms delisted; 16 did so the year before. The last real IPO — with prospectus, roadshow, and CVM scrutiny — also dates back to 2021. Nearly half a decade without newcomers. What followed was a parade of disappointments: of the 69 IPOs launched between 2020 and 2021, only 16 percent still trade above their offer price. The rest became cautionary tales of market delusion. Smart Fit, CSN Mineração, and Caixa Seguridade are lonely survivors in a cemetery of valuations.
With interest rates stuck at 15 percent, equities have turned into an extreme sport. Companies are stepping out of the ring. Staying public is expensive — auditing, compliance, and disclosure costs only pay off when liquidity exists. Liquidity, however, has dried up: daily stock trading averages R$22.9 billion, flat year-on-year, while fixed-income issuance jumped 12.6%, reaching R$1.79 trillion in new placements. The exchange itself is no villain here: it remains the stage where investor appetite has shrunk and risk perception has swollen. The malaise is most visible in equities — but credit, private debt, and venture capital have also felt the chill, even if they keep moving.
Foreign investors, once the market’s barometer of confidence, have also lost their taste. The mix of high rates, volatile currency, and broad skepticism — including among São Paulo’s own Faria Lima set — has turned Brazil into a short-term carry trade: good for speculation, bad for conviction. Patience ran out when corporate governance turned uneven terrain — from Americanas to state-controlled firms meddled by politics. And with Asia offering more genuine growth stories, global capital moved on. Today, foreign funds visit Brazil much like they visit MUB3: curious, nostalgic — and ready to leave by closing time.
It wasn’t meant to be this way. The economy is growing, unemployment is low, inflation is nearing target, and the fiscal balance — while tense — remains under control. Brazil is relatively shielded from global turmoil, Trump-era tariffs, and Europe’s dysfunction. Yet the stock market views the country through its own lens — one permanently fogged. Many agents react out of reflex, or prejudice: unable to trust domestic good news, they translate stability into risk and progress into noise. There is more emotion in disbelief than in analysis — and perhaps the biggest mispricing lies in the market’s own reading of Brazil.
The 5.38 million retail investors still in equities endure more out of stubbornness than faith. The MUB3 fulfils its role: preserving the memory of a once-vibrant market. The question is whether it will also become the final resting place for those who once dared to go public. Brazil’s stock exchange risks becoming a museum piece — and its protagonists, exhibits.
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