Hybe stock

A nighttime shot of Busan, where the Korea Exchange is headquartered. Photo Credit: Wade Lee

Ahead of BTS’ mega-tour blowout – and with their company’s stock price up more than 50% from mid-January 2025 – Hybe execs are exercising $3.5 million worth of stock options.

Technically, the multimillion-dollar stock options appeared to enter the media spotlight in a 10-word “headline-only” TradingView piece. But in the regulatory disclosure itself, dated January 15th and obtained by DMN, Hybe (KRX: 352820) detailed the planned disposal of 24,500 shares at an expected cumulative value of ₩5.16 billion (currently $3.52 million).

That comes out to ₩210,740/$143 per share, far beneath the ₩338,500/$230 per-share price point Hybe boasted when trading wrapped today. Furthermore, with the BTS comeback fueling investor enthusiasm, Hybe stock rose 2.3% on the day, upping its six-month growth to 27%.

This is all great news for the involved higher-ups, whose options will materialize between January 23rd and March 9th, the document shows.

Per a translation of the same Korean-language text, Hybe teed up said options roughly five months following its 2020 IPO. Now, the business plans to transfer “the shares directly from our company’s treasury stock account to the securities accounts of the designated recipients” – or, here, execs “who have met the exercise conditions.”

These professionals are Hybe APAC head Young Jae Shin (9,500 shares), Hybe CEO Jason Jaesang Lee, and CFO Kyung Jun Lee (7,500 shares apiece).

In the bigger Hybe stock picture, C-suite brass aren’t the only ones benefiting from the share-price hike.

BTS’ seven members, some will recall, split a total of 478,695 shares when the K-pop mainstay IPO’d. According to the Korea Times, V, Jimin, and Jungkook have held all their shares since then and consequently found spots on South Korea’s 2025 list of top-100 stockholders under 30.

Nevertheless, recent Hybe stock headlines haven’t been entirely positive. Notwithstanding a general lack of in-depth stateside coverage about the situation, Hybe chairman Bang Si-hyuk is apparently still grappling with intense regulatory scrutiny.

As we broke down last year, this criminal probe concerns alleged private equity deals finalized ahead of the company’s IPO. In October 2025, the Korea Herald indicated that Bang had been “barred from leaving South Korea.”

And last month, the Korea Joongang Daily reported that a Seoul court, approving a request from police, had frozen Bang’s Hybe holdings (to the tune of $107 million worth of shares) pending the investigation’s resolution. This development followed multiple 12-hour rounds of police questioning for the 53-year-old, per the outlet.