F2Pool's Chun Wang, who controls 11% of Bitcoin's hashrate, named Mission Commander for SpaceX's first Mars flight

Chun Wang, co-founder of F2Pool — the mining pool commanding roughly 11.3% of Bitcoin's global hashrate — has been named Mission Commander for SpaceX's first commercial human spaceflight to Mars. Wang, whose personal bitcoin holdings are estimated above $300 million, will take a two-year leave from the crypto world to lead the deep-space mission, currently targeting a 2026 launch.

The mission profile includes a circumlunar flyby within 125 miles of the lunar surface alongside Dennis and Akiko Tito, a high-altitude Mars flyby, and a complex return trajectory — all aboard SpaceX's next-generation Starship V3 architecture. The crew will spend 24 consecutive months in space gathering biomedical telemetry and hardware performance data intended to underpin Musk's long-term plan to transport up to a million people to Mars.