Space Markets is betting that the next wave of the space economy will be financed as much as it is engineered, and its CEO, Nick Trudgen, has come to Brownsville, Texas, to connect with the U.S. space industry. His firm was accepted into the Space Accelerator Program, an eight-week hybrid sprint designed to equip startups with tools to scale, open direct paths to federal funding, and attract strategic partnerships. The program, developed by the Space Foundation and backed by local sponsors, aims to turn the Rio Grande Valley into a hub of space commerce.
The timing could not be better. Launch costs are dropping exponentially with SpaceX’s Starship, opening the possibility of tens of thousands of satellites in orbit within the next five years. Entirely new industries, like space-based solar power, orbital manufacturing, lunar resource extraction, and private stations, are moving from science fiction into business plans.
Space Markets sits at the center of this shift by building a marketplace for space resources and services. Its platform, built to run on the Base blockchain with guidance from Coinbase advisors, seeks to make tokenized satellite capacity and spectrum tradable assets. Unlike speculative crypto projects, the company focuses on regulatory clarity and products that institutional capital can recognize.
The growth of the industry also highlights the demand for new skills. Traditional astronauts still need STEM training and Russian fluency to communicate with Roscosmos, but commercial space needs more than engineers. There is a rising demand for specialists in geospatial studies, data analytics, finance, and even law and policy, to bridge gaps between technology, regulation, and investment.
Brownsville’s accelerator gives Space Markets access to mentors, investors, and peers who are building for this future. By linking blockchain tools with the practical needs of space operators, Trudgen’s company hopes to turn ambitious hardware projects into investable opportunities. The message is clear: the space economy is accelerating, and it needs people, capital, and vision to keep pace.
Disruption Banking interviewed Nick Trudgen about his new venture.
Disruption Banking:
I have a lot of questions. Some are about blockchain and satellites, and some are about your international affairs experience. First, tell me what inspired you to get involved in the Space Accelerator Program.
Nick:
I have been working in the space industry for many years, but mostly outside the United States in places like the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, and Singapore. If you want to play in the major leagues of space, you have to be in the U.S. That is even more true now with SpaceX.
SpaceX has moved its main operations from Hawthorne, California, to Starbase in Brownsville, Texas. That is where they are manufacturing and launching the new Starship vehicle. I contacted the Office of Space Commerce in Washington, D.C., and pitched Space Markets. They told me to speak with the Texas Space Commission. The Commission connected me with the team in Brownsville who are managing a new space accelerator around Starbase.
At the moment, Brownsville does not have much beyond Starbase. The idea is to build an ecosystem around it and create a new hub for space in South Texas. I wanted to get involved early, so we applied to the accelerator. We were probably the first company to apply, and we were accepted into the first cohort. The program is run by the Space Foundation.
We have weekly and even daily calls with mentors from across the U.S. space industry, which has been very useful. One of the biggest benefits so far is that we were invited to join the Commercial Space Federation in Washington, D.C. That is the place to be for what we are doing.
The program will culminate with a demo day in October. I’m gonna go to Brownsville to pitch Space Markets during World Space Week. We will also visit Starbase, see Starship, and meet investors and venture capitalists. It’s very inspiring.
The goal is to have our U.S. office set up by October, probably in Texas. We are considering Houston or Austin for the global headquarters of Space Markets.
Disruption Banking:
It sounds to me like the space industry is very small, but there is a lot of room for growth. Do you think there a shortage of talented young people ignoring the possibilities of a career in the space industry?
Nick:
I think now is a crucial time. That is why in our upcoming marketing video we used the example of the Dutch East India Company opening up a new frontier for the first time. I think Starship is the same kind of moment.
Until now, the cost of getting to space has been prohibitive for most companies. With Starship, the cost will drop dramatically. This means private space stations will become possible. Jed McCaleb, the billionaire co-founder of Ripple, is now investing in private space stations through a company called Vast.
A few years ago, things like space-based solar power or space data centers were unimaginable. Now they are real possibilities. Starship makes this possible because not only are launch costs going down, but the payload capacity is increasing exponentially.
SpaceX started with the small Falcon 1, then Falcon 9, then Falcon Heavy, and now Starship, which is many times larger, so you can put a huge amount into the payload. That completely changes what is possible in space.
Disruption Banking:
How has SpaceX affected your business model?
Nick:
It’s critical. We are lucky to be setting up Space Markets now and not five years ago. You could say that my previous company SpaceChain was launched at the wrong time, too early. With Starship, everything changes.
That is also why it’s so important that we joined the Commercial Space Federation. The members there are not the old telecom companies. They are the new space companies building specifically for Starship. Their business models are things like in-orbit manufacturing, space-based solar power, space data centers, lunar resource extraction, and private space stations.
All of these are only possible because you can now launch huge masses into orbit very cheaply with Starship. That makes it possible for us, on our platform at Space Markets, to onboard these types of companies and resources that did not even exist last year.
Disruption Banking:
What failed or what unexpectedly difficult parts of your past work with SpaceChain, or in China, or in academia, have shaped what you will avoid in the future?
Nick:
A couple of years ago, I made the decision to focus completely on the United States for space. I left China for many reasons. The first reason is that it’s opaque and very hard to understand what is happening. Even for me, as a Chinese speaker, you cannot make major inroads as a foreigner into the Chinese space market. It’s very difficult.
In contrast, the U.S. market is transparent. You know who the companies are, you know who the investors are, they have great branding, and you can reach the team on LinkedIn. It’s possible to build something meaningful in the U.S. So, I left China and focused on the U.S. market.
Another mistake we made was with the token. SpaceChain had a token, and I would call it a failure. It was not properly thought out. The ICO raised a lot of money, but the details were not well-planned. The idea was that the token would act as the gas to power satellite transactions. But that was never going to work. Companies like Starlink, Planet, Maxar, and Airbus were not going to change their business models to incorporate SpaceChain token economics. It was simply unrealistic.
So with Space Markets, we approached it differently. If you have a token, it needs to have a very clear purpose and be very well-planned. That is what we are trying to do now with our team, which includes advisors from Coinbase who help to guide our work on token design and smart contract infrastructure, while our space experts focus on satellite communications and integration with the space industry. We are building our platform on the Base blockchain. Gradually, we are figuring out what the economic model should look like. We have a great idea.
Disruption Banking:
So, following up on that, what were the technical trade-offs in choosing Base versus other blockchains or layer solutions? Why did you choose Base?
Nick:
We spent a few years looking for the right blockchain partner, and we were not very happy with any of them. Then, we met the Coinbase Project Diamond team in Abu Dhabi.
We also met the Coinbase Asset Management Deputy Chief Investment Officer, Marcel Kasumovich, and the Coinbase team in Abu Dhabi, building “Project Diamond.” He is now one of our advisors. He connected us with the Coinbase team in New York, including the head of Project Diamond, who has an aerospace background. He immediately understood what we were trying to do, not only about satellite spectrum trading but also about what could be built in the next ten years for space, and the Coinbase Diamond team delivered a prototype very quickly.
On-chain is the new online. Space Markets are yet to be defined. It’s only natural to start with an on-chain solution—it’s the future as a better, cheaper, faster version of current finance. When the NASDAQ tells you they are migrating to digital infrastructure, it’s clear we’re right to be building for that future. Coinbase is the most trusted brand to bring that vision to life.
Apart from the connections with their team, we wanted to work with a well-known brand to provide trust to an otherwise skeptical and cautious space industry in relation to crypto. Coinbase is leading the charge to move traditional capital markets on-chain and is focused on institutional players.
Ironically, space is actually quite traditional and cautious. It’s yet to embrace the value of blockchain technology. Space Markets aims to fill that gap.
Disruption Banking:
And when you say space is cautious, is that different between countries, or is it an international thing?
Nick:
I’d say it’s international, but some countries are more open than others. The U.S. is the most open to blockchain. Some of our teammates and investors in Space Markets have also invested in more traditional deeptech companies like Anduril, Palantir, Vast, Voyager, plus loads of crypto companies. So we’re really going after that kind of person who understands both worlds. There are Americans who are in the middle, who understand both crypto and space, but in general, especially outside the U.S., there’s very little connection between those two fields.
I’ve had meetings in England at the Harwell Space Campus, where the European Space Agency has a research center. If you mention Bitcoin there, the space people are literally like, “Oh no, we don’t believe in that.” It’ll take time, patience, and education for that mindset to change.
Disruption Banking:
How can that gap be bridged?
Nick:
Well, I am in a few Telegram groups about “DeSpace,” which is like decentralized science but applied to space. These groups are full of very pro-crypto people with big dreams and ideas for the space sector. I wish them well, and I hope they succeed.
However, much of the terminology they use, such as NFTs, tokens, ICOs, and meme coins, is very difficult to integrate with the space industry. The industry is cautious and conservative, so these concepts are not a natural fit. Even in the United States, if you look at the top new-space companies working on ambitious projects like space-based solar power, in-orbit resource extraction, or space manufacturing, they cannot openly associate with crypto.
They are too closely tied to NASA, regulators, and traditional Silicon Valley investors. They have to be careful about how they handle money from the crypto world. Maybe in private, over coffee, you can talk about anything. But when it comes to branding and public positioning, you have to be extremely careful. Otherwise, you risk scaring these companies away.
One example is with SpaceChain, a couple of years ago. We received funding from the European Space Agency and they hosted a webinar with us. During the session, token investors filled the chat asking questions like, “What is happening with the token? Is it going up or down?” The ESA officials were confused and asking, “What is an NFT?” At that moment, it was clear that these two worlds do not combine well, at least not yet.
Disruption Banking:
On the regulatory side, how do you see regimes adapting to tokenized space assets if that is what you are still focused on? Are there jurisdictions you believe are more ready than others?
Nick:
There are really two sides to this. One is satellite communications regulation, and the other is financial regulation.
On the satellite communications side, spectrum is one of the most heavily regulated resources on Earth. What we are trying to do is very novel, which is to commoditize spectrum. Some of our U.S. partners have also advised us to focus on tokenizing satellite capacity, which is slightly easier to manage than spectrum.
On the financial side, we are working on the regulation of the trading platform itself. We are in the regulatory sandbox in Abu Dhabi, in a free-trade zone governed by English law. We also had a few meetings with the FCA in the United Kingdom about their sandbox.
We are exploring the classification of tokenized satellite spectrum as a commodity. It’s intuitive. Of course, the U.S. market is at the center. Our plan is to launch trading first in Abu Dhabi, then possibly in London, and in a few years, enter the U.S.
Disruption Banking:
Should more businesses be using satellites as they become more economical? How can businesses that are not using them now take advantage of satellites?
Nick:
Right now there is exponential growth in the satellite industry, especially with Starlink. In the next five years, we will have tens of thousands of satellites in orbit.
The way I see it, and this may sound like a moonshot, is that in the future every company could have its own satellite, and maybe even individuals, too. At the moment, a company like the BBC might rent capacity from providers such as ViaSat or EchoStar. But in the next few years, as launch costs fall with Starship, it could become cheap enough for companies to have their own dedicated satellites.
Beyond traditional uses like Earth observation and telecommunications, there are huge markets that do not use satellites at all. Opening those markets will be a big opportunity. But it’s also a very technical niche. Unless you understand the industry, it’s hard to figure out how to use it.
I have calls with our tech team in Abu Dhabi about satellite imagery. If you do not have a PhD in geospatial data, it can be impossible to follow the details. So I think a big part of this is education. Businesses need to understand how they can apply satellite data and capacity to their own needs.
Disruption Banking:
I saw in one of your videos that you had been to several launches earlier in your career. How many launches have you been associated with at this point?
Nick:
I have been to two launches, both with SpaceX at Cape Canaveral. The first was a standard Falcon 9 launch. The second was a reusable rocket launch, where the first stage comes back down to Earth.
I was there with my wife—we were getting engaged at the time, so I wanted to show off a little. We watched the first stage go up, and then about two minutes later you hear the sonic boom as it comes back down. Everyone was cheering. It was an amazing experience.
That is one of the reasons we want to be in Brownsville now. With Starship, we can do the same thing. You can bring an investor or a partner to see a Starship launch. it’s incredibly inspiring and powerful.
Disruption Banking:
Do you have to be an astronaut to go to space?
Nick:
If you are a traditional astronaut going to the ISS, then yes, you need to meet very high requirements. You must speak Russian to communicate with Roscosmos if you go to the ISS, and you need a STEM or science background.
But the new breed of commercial astronauts is different. Katy Perry went to space. It shows how the idea of who gets to go to space is changing. That said, space is still extremely technical. When something breaks, you need people who can repair machinery and solve problems in real time. Stuff breaks in space. You need to go fix the Machinery.
Disruption Banking:
What has your experience taught you about what it takes to succeed in the space industry? And since you studied across disciplines, how has your interdisciplinary education shaped your career?
Nick:
Of course, it helps if you study science and technology. That is a big plus. But there is always room in the space industry for people with different perspectives, and that is something the industry is lacking.
If you go to the Harwell Space Campus in the UK, nearly everyone running a space company has the same background. They are all engineers. That means they sometimes struggle to communicate with investors, or to talk to marketing people, or to build networks outside of engineering.
Bringing people from outside the space industry adds real value. Even Elon Musk did not have a space background before starting SpaceX. Outsiders provide new viewpoints. At Space Markets, many of our team members are not “space people.” They come from finance, commodities, and other fields.
Let me give you an example. There is a company in Colorado called Magna Petra, which is working on helium-3 mining on the Moon. They have a five-year roadmap with NASA and the Japanese company ispace focused on prospecting, extraction, and return of helium-3 from the Moon. The founder, Jeff Max, has had a hugely successful career in finance and capital markets in New York. Now he has brought those skills to space. That kind of crossover is going to push the industry forward enormously.
Disruption Banking:
Sort of relatedly, what is holding back the space industry from applying crypto and blockchain? What problems need to be solved before we can pay for digital and Earth-based assets in space?
Nick:
There are a few challenges. The first is education and knowledge. When I go to fintech or blockchain events, people are often fascinated by space. When they hear about Space Markets or the space industry, it’s usually the most interesting thing they have encountered at the conference. People are tired of hearing about stablecoins or DeFi yield tokens. When they hear about space, they immediately want to learn more and find out how to invest in the industry.
The problem is that there is not enough accessible information. Many of the concepts we talk about are highly technical, like space-based solar power, in-orbit manufacturing, or large constellations. Some are possibly not commercially viable yet. For investors who are used to fintech, where revenue can be generated tomorrow, space investments seem riskier and more challenging.
So any company developing tokenized space assets or a space marketplace must provide something investable now and over the next five to ten years.
About five years ago there were two companies, Deep Space Industries and Planetary Resources, that were set up to do asteroid mining. They both raised billions of dollars but were shut down. It was too early. That shows why a roadmap is so important. You need a range of products that deliver value in the short, medium, and long term.
Disruption Banking:
It seems like the future of space will be driven by the private sector. What does this mean for young space industrialists or future space workers?
Nick:
The first example that comes to mind is Andrew Rush, the founder of Made In Space, based in Jacksonville. He describes himself as a “space industrialist.” A decade ago, people like him were seen as outliers or mavericks. But in the next five to ten years, this will become mainstream. People will talk about a space industrial revolution. That will likely happen with Starship, and it will happen very soon.
Most people are aware of AI because of OpenAI and similar developments. Space is not on the same radar yet, but within ten years we will be mining the Moon. That will open huge opportunities that people today do not fully appreciate. Those who are already involved know they are in a good position for the future.
Disruption Banking:
You said international collaboration is vital for ambitious space missions. What do governments need to work on to overcome the obstacles to collaboration?
Nick:
That is a tough question. There have been some good examples of collaboration, such as the International Space Station, where the United States and Russia continue to work together. For years, the only way the U.S. could send astronauts to space was on Russian rockets. So there is a history of cooperation, even between rivals.
One way to facilitate collaboration is through neutral venues. Abu Dhabi has been aggressive in creating an environment where NASA, Roscosmos, and even the Chinese space agency can come together. In a neutral setting, they can openly discuss critical issues like space situational awareness. That is the ability to track what is happening in orbit. If satellites from different countries collide, it could damage the entire orbital environment for everyone.
Countries are looking for ways to create neutral venues where information can be shared openly. Blockchain could be part of the solution, offering zero-trust protocols and open standards. But to make that work, governments and institutions would need to buy in, which is a challenge.
Perhaps the Moon could be another venue for collaboration. The Artemis Accords, led by the United States, are bringing together a coalition of allies to collaborate on lunar exploration. Maybe over time, this could expand to include other major space powers as well.
Disruption Banking:
Following up on space junk. It seems like with more satellites being launched, collisions will become more common. How do we avoid losing assets?
Nick:
That is a great question. One of our verticals at Space Markets is actually space debris, because we want to do something that benefits the planet.
One of our advisors is the former Lord Mayor of the City of London, Michael Mainelli, and we are working with him to pioneer on-chain Space Debris Removal Bonds and other financial products to incentivize the cleanup of space junk, whether by deorbiting satellites, capturing debris with a net, or using magnets.
The goal is to turn space debris into something that can be recycled and monetized. Tokenization could be the mechanism to make this work. If we can create a market around space debris removal, that would be a major win for everyone.
Disruption Banking:
Is there a shortage of attention on space threats? Are we underestimating risks like asteroids or collisions in orbit?
Nick:
Governments are aware, but the general public is not. I read recently that NASA detected an asteroid that will pass very close to Earth within the next ten years, closer than the International Space Station.
This is probably one reason Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and others are focused on getting humans off-planet. If something catastrophic were to happen, humanity would need a backup.
Author: Tim Tolka, Senior Reporter
#Crypto #Blockchain #DigitalAssets #DeFi
The editorial team at #DisruptionBanking has taken all precautions to ensure that no persons or organizations have been adversely affected or offered any sort of financial advice in this article. This article is most definitely not financial advice.
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