The creation of a second bitcoin asset this week did almost nothing to dilute the price of the original unit, with the value of the new asset instead rocketing skyward, generating almost $US7.5 billion ($9.5 billion) out of thin air.

This week, a group of bitcoin activists and developers created a second version of bitcoin, within a few hours, the value of the new unit – bitcoin cash – leapt to over $US600.

The original bitcoin price however, remained fairly steady, still trading at about $US2700 a coin, despite an almost 1:1 duplication of itself.

"Everyone who has bitcoin now has bitcoin cash and because the market reckons this is worth $US600, it's almost like free money!" crowed one Reddit user.