An island in Micronesia. A gold mine in Canada's Yukon Territory. Tickets to the Victoria's Secret fashion show in London. Those are just a few of the assets on offer at BitPremier, a website targeting bitcoin holders looking to unload some of their digital hoard.

The number of listings on BitPremier took off when the price of a single bitcoin – the controversial currency that exists only in cyberspace – skyrocketed to $1137 at the end of November last year from $12 at the start of the year.

Some bitcoin enthusiasts are hoarding their booty.

After regulatory crackdowns around the world, the value of bitcoins dropped by more than half. However, even with the price fall, there are those sitting on bundles of bitcoins with very few ways to spend them. Others are finding it hard to obtain large quantities of bitcoins without moving the price in the still-nascent market.

Bringing the two groups together is BitPremier. The site is the brainchild of 41-year-old Alan Silbert, whose day job is vice-president of biotechnology lending at General Electric Capital Corp.in Washington. Silbert started buying bitcoins in February last year, when the price was about $22, at the urging of his younger brother Barry, chairman of SecondMarket Inc, a New York-based brokerage specialising in hard-to-trade assets.