Goldman Sachs has put a $1.8 trillion figure on the global space economy by 2035 as private investment and commercialization reshape an industry once dominated by governments. Elon Musk, foun
Goldman Sachs has put a $1.8 trillion figure on the global space economy by 2035 as private investment and commercialization reshape an industry once dominated by governments.
Elon Musk, founder and CEO of SpaceX, responded to the forecast on X with a four-word prediction: “It will be much bigger.”
Goldman’s August 2026 report, The Second Space Age, said reusable rockets, smaller satellites and cheaper manufacturing are transforming space into a new pillar of the industrial economy.
More than $55 billion flowed into the space ecosystem in 2025, followed by a record $36 billion in the first quarter of 2026.
Musk’s response fits into a longer-running vision where cryptocurrency could eventually become part of the financial infrastructure supporting an off-Earth economy.
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Musk has linked cryptocurrency and space exploration for years. In December 2020, he agreed with a post from AI researcher Lex Fridman stating that a “Mars economy will run on crypto.”
That idea moved beyond speculation in May 2021 when SpaceX announced the DOGE-1 lunar mission, accepting Dogecoin as payment from Geometric Energy Corporation for the launch.
Musk described it at the time as the “1st crypto in space.”
SpaceX Vice President of Commercial Sales Tom Ochinero said the mission would:
“demonstrate the application of cryptocurrency beyond Earth orbit and set the foundation for interplanetary commerce.”
More than five years later, the mission is now scheduled for Sept. 14, 2026, just 26 days away, aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 from Kennedy Space Center.
SpaceX has also built a substantial Bitcoin position. A regulatory filing for the quarter ended June 30, 2026 showed the company held 18,712 Bitcoin with a cost basis of $661 million and a fair value of about $1.1 billion.
The position places crypto directly on the balance sheet of one of the companies driving the commercialization Goldman describes.
Goldman’s forecast ultimately describes a space economy spanning communications, launch services, manufacturing, data, infrastructure and potentially a wider lunar economy.
Musk believes that market will exceed $1.8 trillion, and his past comments suggest cryptocurrency could form part of the payment infrastructure if commerce eventually expands beyond Earth.
At the time of writing, the total cryptocurrency market was valued at about $2.19 trillion, according to market data. Bitcoin accounted for 59.4% of that market, with a capitalization of roughly $1.3 trillion.
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