One hiatus video cost HYBE a quarter of its value in a day

For HYBE, BTS was the company. The seven-member group accounted for 27 percent of HYBE's US album sales and streams in 2021, and a Hana Financial Investment analyst estimated a BTS hiatus would cut annual revenue by 750 billion won. Diversification existed — a new girl group, Le Sserafim, and the almost $1 billion Ithaca Holdings acquisition behind 45 percent of US album sales — but the market still priced the agency as one act.

On June 14, 2022, in an hour-long video marking their ninth anniversary, the members said they would focus on solo careers. 'The problem with K-pop and the whole idol system is that they don't give you time to mature,' one member said. HYBE rushed out a clarification: 'BTS are not taking a hiatus. Members will be focusing more on solo projects at this time.'

The market did not wait for the clarification. The next day shares fell 25 percent — as much as 28 percent intraday — closing at 145,000 won, the lowest since their October 2020 debut, and wiping out over $1.7 billion in market value. No scandal, no death, no product failure: one sentence in an anniversary video repriced the whole company.