FCA-approved multilateral trading facility LMAX has agreed to list Ven, the digital currency created by online community Hub Culture, enabling brokers, banks and institutions to trade the virtual instrument.

Ven was launched in July 2007 by the 12-year-old social network and in 2009 moved to a basket pricing structure, based on a portfolio of global currencies, commodities and carbon futures. In 2011, Ven became the first digital currency used in a commodity trading deal and in carbon credit trades, and was made available on Thomson Reuters data network and desktop terminals globally



On the LMAX listing, Hub Culture founding director, Stan Stalnaker, says: "We...see this as a significant step in the growth of what we believe will be a serious financial instrument going forward. In the financial markets, Ven offers a new way to approach and settle international transactions with greater stability, efficiency and social benefit."



LMAX is the first MTF to offer exchange-style markets for global FX trading. It offers markets in 65 FX pairs, spot Gold and Silver with order matching based on price/time priority to provide pre-trade anonymity and post-trade transparency.



David Mercer, CEO of LMAX Exchange says: "Digital currencies, such as Bitcoin, have been the focus of a lot of attention over the last year. The challenge going forward is for them to become transferable. In order to become credible, virtual currencies have to be able to be used as a purchasing tool.



"Ven is ideal as the first virtual currency we are listing. But is also by no means the last, and fully we intend to exploit the market potential that credible virtual currencies have to offer."