Jed McCaleb, the man behind Mt. Gox, XRP, and Stellar, is betting half his crypto fortune to build the first commercial space station. His company, Vast Space, plans to launch Haven-1 by May 2026, a key step toward securing a NASA contract to replace the ISS.
McCaleb, who is famous for taking high risks, stands to lose up to $1 billion in the event that Vast fails or is outcompeted by other players such as Blue Origin and Lockheed Martin. But if he does so, his company could play a major role in defining the design of space habitats.
Vast is collaborating with SpaceX and relies on its services in terms of docking, internet connection, and astronaut transportation. It also intends to provide artificial gravity in the future stations in order to deal with some health effects of long-term space travel.
McCaleb’s transition into space is not conventional. Before Mt. Gox was hacked for $400 million in 2014, he sold the company in 2011 and later created Ripple and Stellar, both profiting from XRP. Now he is turning to space, guided by the principles of the future with colonies on other planets.
There aren’t that many folks that are willing to dedicate the amount of resources and time and risk tolerance that I am.” McCaleb said in the Bloomberg interview. His dream aligns with SpaceX’s Elon Musk—both believe humanity must expand beyond Earth.
With Vast’s “Haven-1” launch just two years away, McCaleb’s high-stakes bet could redefine commercial space travel—or cost him a fortune.
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