Canada's richest person worth $40B and climbing ranks of world's wealthiest people

This Canadian billionaire continues to climb as one of the richest people in the world.

Changpeng Zhao, CEO of cryptocurrency exchange Binance, has a net worth of $40.3 billion as of May 6, according to the Bloomberg Billionaire Index.

Not only is he the richest Canadian on the list, ranking in 34th place, but he's also the wealthiest crypto entrepreneur.

The 47-year-old CEO has increased his net worth by $5.91 billion since the beginning of this year, reported the index.

Bloomberg says that Zhao is credited with 90 per cent of Binance based on public statements and filings, adding that the net worth listed doesn't include the amount of cryptocurrency held by the billionaire because it is unknown.

Facebook/Changpeng Zhao | Iryna Budanova/Shutterstock

Born in Jiangsu, China, Zhao (also known as CZ) moved with his family to Vancouver in the late 1980s after his dad got a job at the University of British Columbia. He completed a computer science degree at McGill University in Montreal, and his interest in cryptocurrency was sparked after a discussion at a poker game in 2013, according to Bloomberg.

Zhao started Binance in 2017 and, by 2018, it was the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world.

He isn't the only Canadian on the list. Sherry Brydson follows far behind in 108th place with a net worth of $19.3 billion.

You might not have heard of her since she keeps an incredibly low profile, but her family's name is well-known in the media industry.

According to Bloomberg, Brydson is the largest shareholder of Woodbridge, an investment firm that controls Thomson Reuters, the company that owns Reuters, one of the world's largest international news agencies.

Her family members Taylor, Peter, and David Thomson also made the list taking the 178th, 179th and 180th spots respectively.

The whole family keeps getting richer, also ranking 22nd place on Forbes' Real-Time Billionaires list.