Red Velvet’s Joy is officially staying with SM Entertainment! On January 14, SM Entertainment made the exciting announcement, saying, "Based on the long-standing trust we've built with Joy, we have completed her contract renewal." They added, "With full support, she will continue her diverse activities with us."

The agency expressed their joy, stating, "We are happy to continue our beautiful journey with Joy, following Seulgi and Irene. We will do our best to help her showcase her infinite talents, not only in Red Velvet’s group activities but also as a solo artist and actress Park Soo Young."

Joy herself also shared her excitement, saying, "Based on the trust and belief we’ve shared for 10 years, I had deep conversations with the people I’ve worked with, and I felt that I want to continue moving forward together in a good direction. I will do my best to show my fans various sides of myself through positive synergy with SM."

Red Velvet, who debuted in 2014, has now surpassed the famous "seven-year curse" and celebrated their 10th anniversary last year. This milestone sparked both excitement and concern about the group’s future.

Earlier, Seulgi kicked off the contract renewal process by announcing her renewal in August 2023, followed by Irene’s renewal in February 2024. Fans were eagerly waiting to see what the remaining members, including Joy, would decide.

Now, Joy is the third member to choose to stay with the agency, leaving only Wendy and Yeri’s decisions still up in the air.

Recently, Wendy made headlines after announcing her absence from the '2025 SM Town Live,' expressing some dissatisfaction with the agency. Fans are now wondering what Wendy and Yeri’s next steps will be.

Source (1)

Sunmi is caught up in controversy after the NFT project she promoted made billions of KRW—only to lose most of its value, leaving investors frustrated.

According to Kyunghyang Shinmun on February 21, Sunmi, her agency, and a KOSDAQ-listed company launched the NFT collection Sunmiya Club in February 2022.

The project used blockchain technology to verify ownership of digital assets, turning illustrations inspired by Sunmi’s career into NFTs. Buyers were promised exclusive services to increase their investment value.

Thanks to Sunmi’s strong promotion, the NFTs were a huge success at first, selling out and making billions of KRW.

However, things took a turn when the NFT market crashed due to the Terra-Luna crisis and the bankruptcy of the U.S. crypto exchange FTX in late 2022.

By 2023, Sunmiya Club had stalled, and the once high-value NFTs dropped to just tens of thousands of KRW.

As investors faced major losses, some turned their frustration toward Sunmi. In response, the company behind the project stated, “We have fully followed the roadmap announced at the beginning and have continued operations.

The funds raised from the NFTs were used for operational costs and investments in a new platform launched last year.”

Despite the company’s defense, many are still questioning what went wrong and whether Sunmi will address the backlash.

Source: [1]