My Parents Were Shocked - But I Became One of Australia's Richest
A Young Entrepreneur's Journey from High School to Crypto Success
At the young age of 28, Jackson Zeng has carved a name for himself among Australia's wealthiest individuals under 40. His journey began with a pivotal decision made during his high school years, which set him on a path that would lead to significant success in the world of cryptocurrency.
In 2013, Zeng made his first purchase of Bitcoin for less than $1000. This decision marked the beginning of a career that would surpass his expectations. Prior to this, he had tried to make money online by selling in-game rewards known as 'skins.' However, this endeavor was cut short when PayPal froze his account due to 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 shared with The Australian Financial Review.
Zeng's parents were initially not supportive of his interest in cryptocurrency. "They were not supportive all the way up until I became CEO. It was a very long time," he recalled.
Twelve years later, Bitcoin has reached record highs of $190,000, and Jackson Zeng is now the chief executive of crypto brokerage Caleb & Brown. His personal fortune is estimated at $88 million. Caleb & Brown caters to 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 provided access to Caleb & Brown’s $2 billion client base, 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 later became 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 praised 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 $18.5 billion. They are followed by Ed Craven, the co-founder of the online casino Stake and the live-streaming platform Kick. In third place are 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 $18.5 billion.
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.
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