2023 Reports

Tokenizing the Final Frontier: A Business Model Framework for Financing Commercial Space Ventures

Nakao Nakahodo, Sidney; Blaisdell, Grant; Chen, Guankun (Kwan)

The rapid expansion of the commercial space economy presents new challenges for early-stage financing, where traditional venture capital models often fall short due to lengthy development cycles, high capital intensity, and limited liquidity. This paper introduces a theoretically grounded and practically oriented business model framework that leverages blockchain-based tokenization to address these inefficiencies. Anchored in the literature on business model innovation, modular systems theory, and platform economics, the proposed Tokenized Space Finance Stack offers a five-layer architecture for structuring capital formation and asset monetization in space ventures. A comparative analysis reveals that tokenized financing models outperform conventional venture capital across key dimensions, including capital efficiency, investor inclusivity, transparency, and governance. The paper also outlines a validation strategy involving real-world pilots and stakeholder engagement to assess the framework’s feasibility and scalability. Findings contribute to managerial science by advancing a replicable, innovation-driven approach to financing frontier markets, with broad implications for digital finance, entrepreneurship, and emerging industry ecosystems.