F2Pool co-founder Wang Chun buys the first seat on SpaceX's inaugural Mars trip: I will prove that Mars is a place where humans can return alive

After F2Pool co-founder Chun Wang funded and commanded the SpaceX Fram2 polar mission, he has made another move — directly "purchasing" a seat on SpaceX's first interplanetary flyby mission. This two-year journey will fly past Mars before returning to Earth, and he has simultaneously bought a ticket for a commercial lunar flyby spaceflight. Chun Wang frankly stated: "I have no confidence that Mars can be achieved within our lifetime, so I decided to do something about it." (Background: F2Pool co-founder Chun Wang will become SpaceX manned flight commander, explaining "why Mars, not the Moon") (Context: SpaceX to execute "humanity's first" manned polar space mission, F2Pool mining pool co-founder serves as commander) I believe that even without private capital invested in lunar flights, humanity will eventually reach the Moon, and likely very soon — as US-China competition intensifies, governments will turn lunar bases into reality. But for Mars, I have no confidence it can be realized within my generation. So I decided to do something myself. These words come from F2Pool co-founder Chun Wang, who wrote in a long post on X platform on Friday, explaining why he "purchased" a seat on SpaceX's first interplanetary flyby mission. SpaceX also officially announced this plan on Thursday: a Starship will embark on a two-year journey, flying past lunar orbit, making a close pass by Mars, and ultimately returning to Earth. According to Chun Wang's explanation, he not only purchased a seat on this Mars flyby mission but also booked a ticket for a commercial lunar flyby spaceflight expected to depart earlier. This entrepreneur, who previously funded and personally commanded the SpaceX Fram2 polar mission, is clearly pushing his space ambitions from low Earth orbit toward deep space. In the long post on X, Chun Wang candidly shared his motivation: "I'm happy to sit back and watch the lunar mission become reality — because competition between governments will eventually make it happen. But Mars is different. I have no confidence that Mars can be achieved within our lifetime. By purchasing this Mars flyby mission, I hope to give SpaceX one more reason not to forget about Mars. Because we really shouldn't leave Mars to the next generation." These words reflect his deep anxiety about the pace of human space exploration. SpaceX's current official timeline shows that Starship cargo flights won't launch toward Mars until 2028 at the earliest, for research, development, and exploration missions. As for the ultimate goal — establishing a self-sustaining city on Mars — SpaceX estimates it will require over 1 million people and millions of tons of supplies to achieve, a vision that clearly remains quite distant. Chun Wang's story is itself the best microcosm of the cryptocurrency industry's spillover influence. In 2013, this Maltese-Chinese entrepreneur founded F2Pool in China, making it one of the country's earliest Bitcoin mining pools. To this day, F2Pool remains the world's third-largest mining pool, with a market share exceeding 11.85%. In April 2025, Chun Wang first made global headlines — the Fram2 mission, which he funded and served as commander of, was executed by SpaceX and completed humanity's first manned spaceflight over both the North and South poles of Earth. During this mission, the four-person crew not only completed polar orbital flight but also conducted experiments in space including X-ray imaging and mushroom cultivation. The crew members included German polar scientist Rabea Rogge, Norwegian photographer Jannicke Mikkelsen, and Australian Arctic explorer Eric Philips. Chun Wang's case is just a microcosm of cryptocurrency industry wealth spilling over into space exploration. More and more tech entrepreneurs are using their wealth to fund and personally participate in space missions: Amazon founder Jeff Bezos's Blue Origin, Virgin Group co-founder Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic, and Shift4 Payments founder Jared Isaacman (who previously commanded the Inspiration4 and Polaris Program missions) have all left their marks on this track. However, what makes Chun Wang unique is his Asian background — born in China, active on the international stage with Maltese citizenship — which makes him stand out particularly in this space race dominated by Western tech giants. His journey from Bitcoin mining pool to polar commander to buyer of a Mars flyby mission sketches a distinctly different path of wealth transformation: the wealth created by cryptocurrency is injecting a new, decentralized momentum into human space exploration.