With every major wave of economic transformation, new tools emerge that redefine the concept of investment. Today, financial technology is leading that wave globally, having succeeded in removing the traditional barriers to entering financial markets and turning smartphones into fully integrated investment platforms that offer access to equities, gold, cryptocurrencies, and global markets at the touch of a button.
Dubai has not merely been a beneficiary of this transformation — it has become one of its most prominent architects, drawing on a sophisticated legislative framework, advanced digital infrastructure, and a business environment that attracts fintech and artificial intelligence companies.
At a time when global trading volumes on some platforms exceeded $1.27 trillion during the first quarter of 2026, the UAE has emerged as one of the fastest-growing markets in digital investment, driven by rising financial awareness among younger generations and the expanding use of smart applications in wealth management.
Experts who spoke to Al Bayan confirm that investment in the UAE is undergoing a structural transformation that goes beyond a mere increase in the number of traders, reaching the point of reshaping investment culture itself. Portfolios are moving towards greater diversification, while reliance on data and artificial intelligence in decision-making is increasing — a sign that financial markets have entered a new phase led by technology and innovation.
With global trading volumes surpassing $1.27 trillion in the first quarter of 2026, Dubai continues to consolidate its position as one of the world's fastest-growing fintech and digital investment hubs. This is reflected in investment culture across the UAE, where 71% of Generation Z consider investing a life priority at a time when digital platforms are recording annual growth exceeding 70%. These indicators confirm that Dubai has become an advanced global environment producing a new generation of digital investors.
Al Bayan spoke with a group of investment and business experts about this phenomenon.
Tariq Shabeeb, CEO of Capital.com for the Middle East and North Africa
Technology has radically reshaped the nature and profile of participants in Dubai's financial markets and has facilitated their entry into those markets. Digital platforms have removed the traditional barriers that used to impede investment — such as minimum deposit requirements, reliance on brokers, and complex registration and account-opening procedures. Access to financial markets is now within reach of a new generation that possesses technical knowledge and the ability to work with digital tools.
He adds: In light of this, Capital.com has seen a steady increase in the number of new investors in the UAE and across the broader MENA region over the past two years, owing to the ease of use of trading platforms designed for smartphones.
This is clearly reflected in the fact that approximately 75% of the platform's traders in the UAE rely exclusively on mobile phones, while those aged between 18 and 44 account for more than 86% of all traders.
Capital.com also recorded global trading volumes of $1.27 trillion during the first quarter of 2026, while the UAE maintains its position among the company's three largest global markets alongside Germany and the United Kingdom.
Based on the platform's estimated market share of approximately 25%, the annual size of the CFD market in the UAE is estimated at around $2.5 trillion, underscoring the significant momentum behind the use of digital platforms in the region.
Platform user data also points to growing interest among young investors in diversifying their investments, including global equities, indices, and commodities such as gold, in addition to crypto assets, which are attracting increasing demand.
Gold accounted for the largest share of activity on the platform at the start of 2026, capturing 59% of total trading volumes in January, driven by the steady rise in its prices and central bank purchases reaching their highest levels in 25 years.
Oil also saw a notable uptick in activity during March. This reflects the presence of a segment of traders who hold a comprehensive global outlook and engage with macroeconomic variables in real time through the platform.
As for short-term versus long-term investment patterns, he says the picture is broader: despite the continued appetite for short-term trading — with 71% of MENA trades executed within the same day, compared with 41% in Europe (based on two years of platform data through end-2025) — a tangible shift towards longer-term and more considered investment patterns is being observed, a shift supported by the analytical tools and structured educational features available on the platform.
This generation is undoubtedly distinguished by a high level of education: 64% of traders in the MENA region hold university degrees, compared with 39% in Europe.
Furthermore, 45% of them begin by using demo accounts before investing real money, giving them a knowledge base that helps them make more considered investment decisions.
On the subject of challenges, he notes that these do not lie solely in the extent of knowledge but rather in the ability to make decisions under pressure. Only 17% of MENA traders use automatic stop-loss orders, compared with 37% in Europe — a figure that has remained constant throughout a two-year monitoring period ending in 2025.
This trend continued within the platform through the first quarter of 2026. This specific gap is precisely what Capital.com focuses on through its development of a digital trading platform whose success is measured by the quality of decisions users make, not the number of trades they execute.
He also affirms the company's commitment to continuing to invest in education, developing platform designs, and adopting AI-powered tools that help traders adhere to considered and disciplined decisions at critical moments — because combining universally accessible technology with rigorous governance is what makes this generation's participation in financial markets both possible and sustainable.
Vijay Valecha, Chief Investment Officer at Century Financial
Technology has helped shape a new generation of investors, and the UAE has been no exception to this transformation. This new generation possesses high digital awareness, and modern technological tools have enhanced the democratisation of access to information.
Investors no longer spend long hours analysing and scrutinising reports from the US Securities and Exchange Commission; instead, the new generation of professionals relies on AI models and tools to analyse and understand key indicators. Technology has also encouraged individuals to delve into markets without the burden of searching for data, now that information is practically available at the touch of a button.
As a result, the learning curve that used to take years has shortened significantly. In Dubai, this trend is clearly visible through the strong expansion in fintech licensing within innovation centres such as the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) and Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM).
The DIFC Innovation Hub, which hosts the largest cluster of AI and technology companies, continues to attract growth-stage technology firms and established innovative companies.
Valecha adds: At the same time, the spread of Arabic-language financial content on YouTube and TikTok has helped remove the language barrier that long kept a wide segment of the region's population away from investment discussions.
Although the new generation of investors still relies on specialists for substantive decisions, they have become noticeably more knowledgeable and informed. That said, ease of access does not necessarily mean depth of understanding; the very technology that opened the door to a new class of investors has also amplified speculative behaviour — something investors need to be mindful of.
Trading applications have been a key catalyst for the entry of younger generations into Dubai's financial markets, with the most significant structural shift being the reduction of barriers to accessing financial markets.
Numerous mobile-compatible platforms have emerged that allow investment and trading across multiple asset classes with low initial capital requirements, and services such as robo-advisory, copy trading, and simplified interfaces have further boosted the appeal of these applications. In the past, entering any financial market required a financial broker, paperwork, and larger initial capital.
Moreover — Valecha continues — trading platforms have taken the initiative to educate new and young users through educational blogs and awareness campaigns with the aim of expanding their user base. Many members of Generation Z begin investing their savings even before entering the workforce, driven by the ease of access to investment through applications.
According to a recent survey, approximately 85% of individual investors in the UAE hold domestic equities, and in Dubai this aligns with the demographic profile of young expatriates who possess advanced digital capabilities at a time when traditional wealth management services still do not fully meet their needs.
There are also other factors that have contributed to increased participation in Dubai's financial markets, most notably IPO activity from companies such as Salik and Dubai Taxi, which are directly connected to daily life in the city. Government policies that ease restrictions on individual investors, alongside Dubai's status as a global financial hub, further support this growing momentum of investment participation.
Valecha asserts that new investors in the UAE can be divided into two main categories: the first comprises younger investors aged from their twenties to their mid-forties, while the second includes those over 50 who have succeeded in accumulating sufficient savings to invest larger sums.
The first category naturally has a relatively higher risk appetite and tends more towards achieving short- to medium-term gains, in parallel with building long-term investment portfolios.
This category also seeks to explore multiple channels of market participation, ranging from CFDs and IPOs to deploying capital into long-term investments.
Young investors, particularly those between their twenties and mid-thirties, seek the psychological stimulus associated with active trading, which makes them more inclined towards quick gains.
This is made easier by access to information through platforms such as X, Substack, Discord, and others that the older generation does not rely on to the same extent.
But what has actually changed — Valecha notes — over the past two or three years is that this category has begun allocating a portion of its money to exchange-traded funds, index funds, leading UAE equities, and gold, alongside short-term trades.
It is therefore no longer surprising to find a 28-year-old in Dubai who has an active trading account while simultaneously transferring a regular monthly amount to a fund tracking the S&P 500, with both tracks running in parallel.
Although the speculative side remains the most prevalent and widespread, the long-term orientation is no longer absent, as it was five years ago. The older category, however, differs in its investment behaviour by virtue of its different psychological makeup.
A 55-year-old expatriate investor starting to invest for the first time typically has family obligations, a mortgage, and a future plan to return to their home country, alongside a greater awareness of what it means to lose money.
For this reason, they tend to enter markets through financial advisers or private banks rather than Telegram groups. From the very first asset allocation, they think with a clear methodology based on dividing portfolios into multiple components:
A core long-term portfolio comprising global equities, bonds, and dividend-paying UAE equities; real estate allocations for yield; and some investment in gold.
In addition to a limited allocation directed at thematic bets on which they already accept the possibility of total loss. They do not avoid speculative assets; rather, they determine their level of exposure thoughtfully, without conflating it with their wealth-building strategy.
This generational divide is linked to the specific nature of the UAE market — Valecha continues: young expatriates are often building their first real capital base within a tax-free environment surrounded by stories of rapid wealth creation, which reinforces the pull towards speculation.
Long-term investment discipline comes later, and deliberately so. Older investors, by contrast, typically arrive having already accumulated their wealth and experience, especially after witnessing the fallout of the 2008 crisis or local market crashes that inflicted heavy losses on highly leveraged investors.
On the proportion of investors in UAE markets who use digital platforms for trading and the volume of their transactions, Valecha said: Data from brokerage and fintech companies clearly indicate a sharp rise in individual investor participation through mobile applications and electronic brokerage platforms.
Platforms such as Interactive Brokers, eToro, Baraka, Sarwa, Saxo, and Capital.com have all seen growing user bases, particularly among young investors seeking easier access to global financial markets.
Digital trading activity has also expanded at a rapid pace across equities, foreign exchange, commodities, cryptocurrencies, and US equities, making online platforms an increasingly important part of the UAE's financial ecosystem. Market participants confirm that a significant proportion of individual investor trading activity is now managed through these digital channels.
He added: the UAE is one of the company's three largest global markets in terms of trading activity, while the Middle East is one of its largest operational regions. Data for 2025 showed strong growth: in the first half of the year, Capital.com recorded total trading volumes of $1.5 trillion, an increase of 42.5% compared with $1.06 trillion in the second half of 2024.
MENA trading volumes reached $804.1 billion, up 53.3% compared with the previous half of the year, while the UAE accounted for approximately 71.7% of the region's total volumes on the platform.
Gold, cryptocurrencies, oil, and US equities were among the most traded asset classes, reflecting growing investor interest in global markets and alternative investments.
In general — Valecha elaborates — the UAE has become one of the fastest-growing digital investment hubs in the region, supported by the expansion in fintech adoption, supportive regulatory frameworks, and rising individual investor participation through electronic trading platforms.
On the asset classes targeted by new digital investors, Valecha said: with the spread of technology, the investment process has become easier and smoother than ever before.
In the past, investors had to call their brokers to execute orders; today they can do so directly via their smartphones. Cryptocurrencies are the biggest beneficiary of the digital transformation in investment, with gold coming in second place.
Gold has reinforced its investment appeal through reductions in production and trading costs. In competitive markets, manufacturing costs may range between 10% and 15%, while they rise to between 20% and 25% for premium brands — meaning that gold worth 100 dirhams might effectively be purchased for 110 dirhams.
Prices therefore need to rise to that level just to reach the breakeven point. In addition, gold generally commands a high unit price, and with digital platforms providing fractional ownership services, access to it has become easier for investors.
Ahmed Al Khateeb, CEO of Business Development at CFI Group
Trading applications have facilitated the entry of a new generation into Dubai's financial markets and have broken down three barriers that used to prevent small investors from entering: the information barrier, the cost barrier, and the complexity barrier. Digital platforms today offer real-time data, simplified analytics, and user-friendly interfaces in multiple languages, and most provide multiple user solutions that allow the exploration of many products in a simplified manner.
Data show that 86% of traders in the MENA region are aged between 18 and 44, with millennials accounting for 55% of active users. In the UAE specifically, 71% of Generation Z now consider investing a life priority, compared with just 37% a decade ago.
A large proportion of them enter with a quick-profit mindset, but many gradually shift towards strategic thinking after experiencing the market directly — usually after learning the lesson the hard way.
Markets are a harsh but effective teacher, and what concerns me is that waves of social media-driven trading and media hype feed this quick-wealth mentality without awareness, prolonging its lifespan.
There is nothing wrong with anyone choosing to speculate or invest, but what matters is that they have sufficient awareness to manage their money in a way that builds cumulative value over time, without the random risk-taking that exposes them to significant losses.
On the proportion of traders using digital platforms among all investors in UAE markets and the volume of their trades, Al Khateeb said: exact figures vary depending on the source and classification method.
But the trend is clear: the majority of trades are executed via digital platforms, with user numbers growing at an accelerating rate exceeding 70% annually, particularly following the Covid-19 pandemic.
What we observe in practice is that this segment has come to constitute a significant portion of daily trading volume, especially in highly liquid assets. But importance should not be measured by volume alone — this generation's influence on investment culture and expectations of financial products is no less significant than the volume of its trades.
Al Khateeb affirms that technology has not only facilitated access to various markets but has fundamentally redefined the concept of the