UAE Free Zone: Meydan

The top-tier Dubai free zone, carrying 2,500-plus permitted activities under a single license, including DLT and blockchain-development categories: the broadest activity catalog in the emirate. Reach for Meydan when you do not know exactly what the company will be doing in 18 months and want the flexibility baked in, or when you operate across activity categories that elsewhere would force separate licenses. The UAE is REPUTABLE tier, off every EU and FATF list as of February 2026, with no public UBO register, and like the other Dubai zones Meydan grants 100% foreign ownership, an establishment card, and a visa-through-the-company path, filed through a licensed free-zone corporate-service provider and settled in BTC or USDT via BitSettle.

Most appropriate for holding-plus-operating combined entities, multi-activity service businesses that would otherwise run consulting, e-commerce, and IP licensing under separate licenses, and Dubai-credibility plays where the broad scope and the Dubai-zone name carry weight. Meydan provides a digital-address license at the base tier, so a physical office is an optional add-on rather than a requirement, which keeps the entry footprint light while preserving the wide activity catalog.

Less ideal for single-activity operators, who pay for breadth they will not use (IFZA is cheaper and equally credible for one line of business), and for budget-sensitive founders (RAKEZ runs materially cheaper for the same core utility). It is also not a crypto license: the catalog lists DLT and blockchain-development activities, but regulated virtual-asset activity such as custody, exchange, and brokerage still requires separate VARA authorization, and the Meydan license alone is not sufficient. And as with every UAE entity, the 9% federal corporate tax can apply above AED 375,000 taxable profit, with the 0% qualifying-income rate conditional on the free-zone substance test, so confirm your activity qualifies with a UAE corporate-tax advisor before assuming it.