The value of Ven - Hub Culture's social currency - now floats in real time linked to the global markets.

In a landmark move, Ven has become the first virtual currency to move from a 'dollar peg' to a global basket for pricing. This move allows greater protection, flexibility and resilience in the value of of Ven, acting as a hedge against single currency fluctuations in the international markets.

The basket of six currencies and six commodities is comprised of simple weightings which can work to help maintain the constant value of Ven in real terms.

Ven has always broken new ground. Since its inception on 4 July, 2007 as a favour based exchange system, it first gained an exchange rate pricing mechanism linked to the dollar in 2008, and a network of global currencies in early 2009. In the spring of 2009, Ven became the first virtual currency to be accepted in real physical places - the growing network of Hub Culture Pavilions located in key cities around the world. Pavilions that redeem Ven have appeared in London, Copenhagen, Davos, Ibiza, Cannes, New York, Los Angeles, and other locations.

With the move to a global pricing basket, the component commodities and currencies that make up Ven provide a number of advantages to the Hub Culture community. In addition to hedging exchange rate risk linked to single currencies, market watchers can compare the value of Ven against a growing list of assets in real time, a move that will eventually lead to further expansion and development of the currency.

Global pricing for Ven is provided in partnership with Gekko Global Markets. Gekko Global Markets is a leading UK company that provides trading platform solutions to both financial institutions and private clients. Says Leo Deng, of GGM: "We are proud to be in partnership with Hub Culture on the Ven project and we look forward to launching more exciting Ven-related features in the near future."