HYBE will buy 860,004 shares (2.5% stake) worth 500 billion KRW (421.6 million USD) of Dunamu – the operator of South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Upbit by issuing convertible bonds worth 400 billion KRW (337.3 million USD).
Dunamu decided to invest 700 billion KRW ($590.2 million) in newly issued HYBE shares through a third-party allocated capital raise. Dunamu’s stake will be 5.6% in HYBE.
HYBE announced that they have made this decision to establish a long-term partnership with Dunamu and jointly promote NFT projects.
By entering the NFT business, HYBE is expected to create digital assets like commodities by linking its representative artists such as BTS, TXT… with NFT and earn profit through this.
HYBE announced the details of this new business project at the “HYBE 2021 Community Briefing” broadcast via the company’s official YouTube channel.
During the press conference, HYBE introduced about the company’s business diversification besides entering the NFT business.
However, netizens were not satisfied when HYBE was “venturing” into other business fields besides music. Many people are criticizing HYBE because they don’t focus on artists and music and are running after profits.
Netizens commented, “I really don’t like how HYBE uses BTS and other artists to promote things like this”, “Why can’t they just focus on their main job?”, “They’re losing focus on the music business”, “This is crazy, I don’t know what company they really are and they’ve forgotten what made them what they are today”, “They need must stop venturing into new businesses”…
