Good idea.
Some small additional gratification would be useful.
Some kind of distinction for the person who currently occupies the first place in the ranking.

Example:
The richest (at the given moment) player in the game would have a small icon displayed next to his profile or something like that.
It could be an icon in the game displayed next to the username, or an icon displayed somewhere under the profile picture on the forum, or both.

Examples of icons/pixel arts:
- gold bar (tc ranking)
- coin tree (tc ranking)
- golden tooth (tc ranking)

- laurel wreath (qi ranking)

...you get the idea .