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At just 28, Melbourne crypto broker Jackson Zeng has earned a place among Australia's richest under 40 - all thanks to a life-changing decision he made back in high school. In 2013, Zeng bought his first Bitcoin for less than $1000, a move that would set him on a career trajectory far beyond his wildest dreams. It came after Zeng's earlier attempt to make money online, selling in-game rewards known as 'skins', was cut short when PayPal froze his account amid anti-money-laundering checks. 'I was too young to understand what any of the questions they were asking me were, so instead of figuring out how to answer them, or how to answer these US tax bill forms, I started learning how Bitcoin worked instead,' he told The Australian Financial Review. Zeng said his parents were initially horrified by his crypto passion. 'They were not supportive all the way up until I became CEO. It was a very long time.' Twelve years on, Bitcoin has surged to record highs of $190,000, and Jackson Zeng is now chief executive of crypto brokerage Caleb & Brown with an estimated personal fortune of $88 million. Caleb & Brown targets private investors in the United States and was recently acquired by Australian cryptocurrency exchange Swyftx in a deal worth up to $200 million. For Swyftx, the acquisition delivered access to Caleb & Brown’s $2 billion client book, giving it the largest geographic reach of any Australian exchange. Caleb & Brown was founded in 2016 by Rupert Hackett and Dr Prash Puspanathan. The pair met Zeng at a University of Melbourne event in 2017, where he became the company’s first employee. He went on to become an equal owner in 2020 and took on the role of CEO the following year. The firm now employs 64 staff across Australia and the US. Dr Puspanathan described Zeng as “a true visionary of crypto in Australia” who helped transform a home-grown, bootstrapped startup into a global player. This year’s Young Rich List is once again topped by Canva co-founders Melanie Perkins and Cliff Obrecht, with a combined fortune of $18.5billion. They are followed by Ed Craven, the co-founder of the online casino Stake and the live-streaming platform Kick. In third spot is brothers and Immutable co-founders Robbie and James Ferguson who founded the blockchain platform for third-party games and non-fungible tokens that allows players to own and trade their in-game purchases. Andrew Tulloch is also the highest-ranked debutant in 2025. The University of Sydney graduate, who grew up in Perth, spent more than a decade working at Facebook's parent company before joining rival OpenAI. In February, Tulloch co-founded AI start-up Thinking Machines Lab with former OpenAI chief technology officer Mira Murati. The company is now reportedly valued at $18.5billion. According to the Wall Street Journal, Mark Zuckerberg tried to buy Thinking Machines Lab earlier this year, but Murati rejected his offer. Meta's CEO then attempted to lure the company's top talent, including Tulloch who was allegedly offered a US$1 billion.
