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BTS' RM, Jin, SUGA, J-Hope, Jimin, V and Jungkook hold more shares in HYBE than subsidiary CEOs? Find out
A viral claim says BTS members are the fifth-largest shareholders in HYBE, but with no cited sources, doubts remain. Find out the truth here!
A recent viral claim circulating on the internet has sparked a heated debate among fans and netizens, suggesting that BTS members have now become the fifth-largest shareholders in HYBE. The post alleges that the seven members collectively hold a 1.1% stake in the company and that their individual shareholding is greater than that of any CEO leading HYBE’s subsidiary labels. However, the claim has been presented without any official sources or statistical backing, leaving many to question its accuracy.
This speculation gained traction after a post on X suggested that BTS members would be exercising their shareholder voting rights collectively, effectively making them a major power bloc within HYBE. The claim further implied that each BTS member’s individual shareholding was higher than the CEOs of HYBE's subsidiaries, including HYBE Labels Japan, ADOR, and Pledis Entertainment.
While this assertion might seem logical given BTS’ major role in HYBE’s financial growth and global standing, official records suggest otherwise. According to HYBE’s official financial reports and publicly available shareholder information on financial platforms like Bloomberg, the four largest shareholders of HYBE are Bang Si Hyuk (31.6%), Netmarble (12.1%), the National Pension Service of Korea (8.2%), and Dunamu Inc. (5.5%).
Beyond these major stakeholders, an additional 5.7% of shares are categorized under ‘others’, which includes smaller institutional investors and individual shareholders. Additionally, the report suggests that Scooter Braun, CEO of HYBE America, remains the fifth-largest shareholder of HYBE. This directly contradicts the claim that BTS members now hold this position.
Moreover, BTS members do indeed hold HYBE shares, but the extent of their ownership is nowhere near what the viral post suggests. Back in 2020, when HYBE went public, its founder and chairman, Bang Si Hyuk, gifted the seven BTS members a substantial number of shares as a token of appreciation for their role in the company’s success.
Public records indicate that Jungkook, the youngest member of BTS, remains one of the top 10 individual shareholders, holding 68,385 shares, which equates to approximately 0.16% of HYBE’s total shares. If all seven members had retained their gifted shares, their collective stake might have approached the 1.1% figure being speculated. However, this assumption does not hold as some members have already sold portions of their stock.
In 2021, HYBE released its Stock Holding Changes Report, which revealed that Jin, RM, and J-Hope had each sold a portion of their shares. Jin sold 16,000 shares, RM offloaded 10,385, and J-Hope sold 5,601. As a result, their individual ownership percentages are no longer identical, and their collective stake has been reduced from its initial level. This means that the assertion that BTS still holds a 1.1% stake is, at best, misleading and, at worst, entirely inaccurate.
However, stock ownership is a complex issue, and large financial decisions within a corporation like HYBE involve multiple stakeholders, not just individual shareholders. Even if BTS members collectively held a 1.1% stake, their voting power would still be relatively small compared to HYBE’s larger institutional investors.
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