Eric Heimburg, senior systems designer on Star Trek Online, talks about the game economy in a recent dev blog. "First off, will the game have an economy? We've heard the community ask this question several times, and the answer is yes. The Federation has a thriving economy, with major financial institutions (such as the Bank of Bolias) keeping trade running smoothly".

He explains us that "the basic unit of currency in the Federation is the credit, an entirely electronic type of money. The credit is quite well entrenched in canon stories: Cyrano Jones was selling tribbles for credits way back in 2268; nearly a century later, they were still in common use when the Federation offered 1,500,000 credits for the Barzan wormhole in 2366. Since players are in the Federation, it makes sense to use Federation credits as the basic currency. We'll assume that other currencies, such as latinum bars and Cardassian Leks, can be converted into credits (perhaps with some exchange fee)."