SpaceX’s First Mars Crew Includes a Crypto Billionaire and It’s Not Elon Musk

SpaceX named crypto billionaire Chun Wang to lead its first crewed Mars flyby. The F2Pool co-founder will pilot a roughly two-year mission beyond the Earth-Moon system, the first of its kind.

The reveal aired during SpaceX’s live broadcast of Starship V3’s first launch attempt, which was scrubbed on Thursday. The company has not disclosed a target launch window for Mars or for an earlier lunar precursor flight.

Chun Wang’s Bitcoin Fortune Funds SpaceX Mars Flyby

Wang co-founded F2Pool in 2013, and it remains one of Bitcoin’s top crypto mining pools. Hashrate Index places its current share at roughly 10% of network hashrate.

That share feeds scrutiny of Bitcoin mining pool concentration, where four operators dominate block production after the halving. Wang has remained tied to F2Pool while pursuing other ventures.

His wealth, built through early Bitcoin mining and pool operations, has already financed private spaceflight. Wang funded and commanded Fram2 in 2025, the first crewed polar orbit, by selling part of his bitcoin holdings.

That mission carried an all-civilian crew over both poles and made Wang the first Maltese citizen in space.

The same playbook now powers his interplanetary push, after earlier SpaceX Bitcoin transfers tied crypto treasuries to space.

Speaking from Bouvet Island in a pre-recorded video, Wang said the flyby should make Mars feel reachable. He framed the trip as a step toward future landings, not a substitute.

“So it’s going to be a flyby mission of Mars,” Wang said in a recorded announcement.

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The schedule now depends on Starship V3, whose maiden flight slipped after Thursday’s scrub.

A second launch attempt is set for Friday evening. If Starship V3 reaches orbit, the Mars timeline moves with it. Until then, both the lunar precursor and Mars flyby remain open.

Musk’s Mars ambitions continue drawing crypto wealth into deep space.

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