Does it surprise you that in one of the world’s most crypto-friendly markets, investors are moving back toward gold and oil?

According to eToro’s UAE Retail Investor Beat survey, commodities have overtaken crypto as the country’s most widely held asset class. The enduring appeal of gold and oil is not simply a rational response to market performance. It is the familiarity.

People consistently favor assets they understand, can visualize, and relate to culturally. Economists call this “familiarity bias”— the tendency to prefer investments that feel psychologically close and socially recognizable.

In the UAE, like other countries in the region, few assets feel more familiar than gold.

Long before the federation’s formation…