Bang Si-hyuk, the CEO of BTS‘ label HYBE, has addressed concerns from fans regarding the company’s planned NFT ventures.
In a new interview with TIME Magazine, the HYBE head spoke about the music label’s impact on the music industry and its upcoming ventures. As part of the latter topic, Bang also touched on the potential launch of artist-related non-fungible tokens (NFTs), addressing the backlash faced by the company from fans, which included threats to boycott the company.
“When we said we were going to pursue an NFT exchange, the market reacted with [an] enthusiastic welcome, but fans showed concern and at times aggressive feedback,” he noted. “All I’d like to say to fans is: As of now, we haven’t announced anything.”
He then elaborated by saying that HYBE has yet to flesh out plans on “what kind of product we would service or what type of product we would make”, however clarified that he “fully understand[s] the concern”.
“In fact, one of the reasons we decided to pursue an NFT exchange was in order to be able to address these concerns ourselves [and] respond directly to fan concerns rather than a platform company that moves according to their own interests,” Bang added. He also shared that the company is currently considering implementing “policies and technical measures” to reflect fan concerns.
“We are doing our best to provide more value and experience to fans while trying to satisfy the market’s quick demands, which can be difficult,” he said. “We have some interesting projects in the works and I think we’ll be able to show them to you soon. And when that happens, I’d like to say cautiously, that perhaps you’ll find yourself not thinking, ‘These guys don’t understand why we hate this’.”
HYBE first announced plans to partner with fintech company Dunamu to launch a new NFT-focused venture that would use IP-based on its artists, such as BTS and TXT, to create digital assets back in November 2021.
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