HYBE stock dips after BTS members sell shares

SEOUL, Dec. 6 (UPI) -- The stock price of HYBE, BTS's management company, went down after members of the K-pop group sold their shares -- worth $8.4 million in total.

Three BTS members -- Jin, J-Hope and RM -- sold a total of 31,986 shares of HYBE stock between Oct. 13 and Nov. 9.

The decision initially appeared profitable as the sale took place just ahead of Nov. 16, when HYBE's value peaked at double its initial public offering price a year before.

The seven BTS members were originally given almost 480,000 shares, or a 1.41 percent stake in the company, which has a market value of more than $11 billion. Each member received some 68,000 shares.

However, the sale, announced Thursday, prompted some investors to dump HYBE shares, and its price dipped 6.38 percent that day. After a short rebound on Friday, the firm's value also depreciated 5.5 percent Monday.

"HYBE's regulatory filing is somewhat attributed to the decline of its shares. But the country's entertainment firms have been weak in the Seoul market over the past few weeks," HMC Investment & Securities analyst Kim Hyun-yong told UPI News Korea.

"BTS proved its market power once again with its recent successful show in Los Angeles. If HYBE taps into the NFT business as planned, its share price may jump once again," he said.

According to Billboard, BTS fans purchased 214,000 tickets for the group's four-night concert at the SoFi stadium in California between Nov. 27 and Thursday, which earned $33.3 million.

In November, HYBE announced its plans to start a new NFT platform, which will circulate digital photo cards of HYBE artists, including BTS.

An NFT is a virtual asset stored on the blockchain. The technology caught global attention in March when Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey's first Tweet sold for almost $3 million.