As we know in August 2020 when вιg нιт Entertainment was listed on the stock exchange, Bang PD gave his own shares to 7 members of BTS. This is supposed to be Bang PD's way of thanking the group for their dedication to building a powerful HYBE empire from a small company.

However, since that time, the controversy regarding the number of shares received by members is too small compared to what they have contributed has been discussed for a long time. Although after that, the story began to sink, but up to this point, in the context of HYBE's acquisition of SM, it has once again become a topic of interest.

In particular, after the announcement of the list of 34 shareholders with a stock value of more than 10 billion KRW in the кσяєαn entertainment industry, this story has even more opinions on кσяєαn and international online forums:

In 2020, вιg нιт pαѕѕed the preliminary round of appraisal for an Initial Public Offering (IPO). Accordingly, вιg нιт has been approved to offer securities on the KOSPI general exchange (SM, JYP and YG are KOSDAQ exchanges). As of the date вιg нιт submitted the preliminary appraisal, founder Bang Si Hyuk held 43.4% of the company's shares.

Not long after that, fans stirred when вιg нιт announced that BTS had officially become the shareholders of the management company. Specifically, in вιg нιт's report, the company gave 478,695 shares to BTS members. Thus, with a lineup of 7 people, each member of the group received 68,385 shares, officially becoming shareholders of the company.

We all know that from a small company with a lot of debt, вιg нιт has continuously grown during the past time thanks to BTS. Currently, вιg нιт Music of the past has become a powerful HYBE empire, able to acquire even SM and become the most formidable giant in the entertainment industry.

Therefore, all these shares were given by the company or more specifically, by the chairman of Bang to the 7 members as gifts in return for their efforts during a decade. However, since then there have been many controversies about whether these shares are worthy of what members devote for company? Considering the data from вιg нιт's report, netizens estimate that 478,695 shares that вιg нιт gave to BTS account for about 1.4% of the company's total shares. This also means that each member holds about 0.2% of the shares in the company.

Immediately, a part of ARMY and Knet thought that this figure of 0.2% for each person was too small. On the stock exchange, 0.2% is not a small number, and in fact at that time, it was estimated that each member was also entitled to $ 7.7 million thanks to the huge value of вιg нιт. However, netizens questioned that: вιg нιт's value as it is today is all thanks to BTS, so the fact that each person is only given 0.2% is too little.

Not only that, most recently, after CXO announced the list of the top financial αѕѕet holders in the K-entertainment industry, in which, Bang Si Hyuk was at the top of the list, followed by J.Y. Park and Yang Hyun Suk in the top 3, this topic once again began to be discussed.

The report revealed that the chairman of the board of HYBE Labels, Bang Si Hyuk, was the undisputed #1 owner of individual financial αѕѕets, possessing approximately 2.57 trillion KRW (~ USD 2 billion) worth of stocks. 

All seven BTS members made the top 100 in this category, with SUGA, Jimin, V, and Jungkook each owning approximately 13.3 billion KRW (~ USD 10.4 million) worth of shares. j-hope possessed the next highest amount of shares at 12.2 billion KRW, RM followed behind with 11.3 billion KRW, and Jin rounded up the group with 10.2 billion KRW.

Although it is already amazing that the seven members have made the top 100 list of financial αѕѕet holders, some fans are saying that the HYBE stock owned by BTS members is too low compared to their contributions to the company. If you combine all the BTS members' stocks together, it would be worth less than 1% of HYBE's total stocks.

Netizens and fans gave many comments about this story:

- They should give more to the members

- HYBE give them more shares

- BTS basically earned most of the profit for HYBE, the company needs to give them more for their contributions

- They basically built the company, they deserve more

- That is so little compared to their contributions for the company

- Bang Si Hyuk has so much, he can share a little more

- That's so little, I'm surprised how little they were given

- These shares were just gifts though.. They have always been paid

- These were first given to them as gifts. I know rm and another member I forgot who sold some later on. But these are not low at all

- The shares were a bonus and a sign of good will from BangPD. He actually didn’t have to give them shares during their IPO because they were already getting paid per their contract. It’s actually very rare for artists to have this much stock given freely from their company. All in all BTS have about 1.04% ownership of HYBE. To put in perspective, Align Partners who started all the trouble in SM have this much share.

- No one can deny BTS contribution but business has nothing to do with the role an artist/idol play to rise a name of a company. SM, JYP or YG also started as small companies and they rose to their actual position thanks to the hard work and conttribution of their early idols but does that mean all these people have to own shares ? No ! Idols sure conttribute to the development of their company (and their are paid for their hardwork) but idols also wouldn't exist if the companydidn't give them the chance to exist. As every idol, if BSH didn't believe in BTS and their members, BTS would have never existed in the first place. And since they didn't do that well during their early days, if BSH didn't keep faith in them and decided to give up on them, they would have never been able to be where they are today.

- While I do think it’s too low- Jin, RM and Hobi did sell some of their stocks as well. I’m not sure if they want more themselves, but I personally think they deserve much more since they literally built HYBE from scratch along with вιg нιт staff.

- I agree it's too low and they deserve more.