9% of Arab Crypto Investors on Etoro invest in traditional assets

eToro, a global multi asset investment platform, utilizing data from its platform has found that those who trade in crypto assets are also becoming investors in other assets, including stocks, commodities and forex. Globally, the data shows that from the new investors who started to use eToro in 2017 and 2018 to trade crypto, 11% of them then went on to diversify their investments into traditional stocks, commodities and forex.

Interestingly Arab crypto investors who used eToro also went on to trade in other assets. According to the findings, 9% of crypto traders from the GCC and Arab region went on to invest in other assets. 30% of the Arab and GCC crypto traders went on to trade commodities. In other words 2.7% of the total of 9% of GCC and Arab Crypto traders invested in trade commodities. A commodity market is a market that trades in primary economic sector rather than manufactured products. Soft commodities are agricultural products such as wheat, coffee, cocoa, fruit and sugar.

Traders from the Arab world particularly GCC were older than global average. They were in age brackets from 35-44 compared to global average of 25-34 age range.

According to Mr. George Naddaf, Regional Manager- Middle East, etoro, “It is interesting to see that the GCC and Arab region are not only trading in crypto but also in other assets as well. While the age bracket is higher in the region for those who trade crypto, the data is indicative of the fact that more and more people are starting to understand and be interested in the crypto scene in the Arab world.”

He adds, “If it were not for Etoro crypto trading platform we might not have seen new investors go into other traditional asset investments. The data shows that once people start dabbling in crypto, it makes it easier for them to trade other asset classes. Investing in crypto has opened up opportunities to bring in new investors and this is a good thing in the long term.”

Iqbal V. Gandham, UK Managing Director at eToro, comments, “As an industry we need to rise to the challenge and work harder to engage consumers. For a very long time investing has been seen as the preserve of the wealthy and/or something that is too complicated for the average man on the street. Crypto changed that”.

With the introduction of other crypto exchanges in the region that include for example Rain in Bahrain, it seems obvious that there will be an increase in GCC and Arab cryptotraders. As regulatory and legislation is pushed through in the UAE and KSA crypto trading will flourish as will the exchange and trading platforms serving them.