Once a software company, MicroStrategy turned to bitcoin speculation at the instigation of its folkloric chairman Michael Saylor, a cryptocurrency paladin and social network evangelist-star.

Over the past five years, the company has purchased $9 billion worth of bitcoin. Two-thirds of these transactions were financed by capital increases, and the remaining third by debt.

The day before yesterday, the company announced the placement of $700 million in convertible debt at a rate of 2.25%, with an option to convert at $2,043 per security from December 15, 2031.

The package is subject to various clauses and adjustments totally in favor of the borrower - and therefore against the lenders.

The deal is as astonishing as it is scandalous: in what other sector can one imagine a company benefiting from such a low cost of capital, especially when its design amounts to speculating on the price of a volatile and controversial asset such as bitcoin?

MicroStrategy's shareholders and bondholders should not lose sight of the fact that they are taking far more risks than Michael Saylor - who usually pulls out the heavy artillery when it comes to promotion.

No fool, Saylor is quick to sell the shares he receives under his very generous stock option plan on the market, pocketing hundreds of millions of dollars in capital gains in the process.