LEASES

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2022

LEASES

LEASES

NOTE 7 — LEASES

Effective in May 2021, the Company entered into a ground lease (the “Ground Lease”) related to its planned bitcoin mining facility in New York with a counterparty which is a related party due to control by a member of Company management. The Ground Lease includes fixed payments and contingent payments, including an annual escalation based on the change in the Consumer Price Index as well as the Company’s proportionate share of the landlord’s cost to own, operate and maintain the premises. The Ground Lease originally had an initial term of five years commencing in May 2021 and a renewal term of five years at the option of the Company, subject to the Company not then being in default, as defined. In July 2022, the Ground Lease was amended to increase the initial term of the lease to eight years and to amend certain other non-financial sections to adjust environmental obligations, site access rights and leasehold mortgage rights. In September 2022, the compensation due to the landlord for entering into the lease amendment was finalized with a compensatory amount of $12.0 million, issuable in shares of Common Stock determined using a trailing volume weighted average price. In September 2022, the Company issued 8,510,638 shares in satisfaction of this obligation. The Common Stock issued had a fair value of $11.5 million at the date of issuance. The Ground Lease, which is classified as an operating lease, has been remeasured as of the date of the amendment, resulting in an increase of $11.2 million to both right-of-use asset and operating lease liability in the consolidated balance sheets. The Ground Lease remains classified as an operating lease based on the remeasurement analysis that utilized a discount rate of 12.6%, which is an estimate of the Company’s incremental borrowing rate based on the estimated rate of interest for collateralized borrowing over a similar term of the lease payments at the remeasurement date. Upon expiration of the lease, the buildings and improvements on the premises will revert to the landlord in good order. Payments under the lease commenced in 2021. For the year ended December 31, 2022, the Company recorded operating lease expense of $932,000, including contingent expense of $298,000, in operating expenses – related party in the consolidated statement of operations and made cash lease payments of $222,000 in addition to the issuance of the aforementioned Common Stock. For the period February 8, 2021 (date of inception) to December 31, 2021, the Company recorded operating lease expense of $107,000 in operating expenses – related party in the consolidated statement of operations and made no cash lease payments. The remaining lease term based on the terms of the amended Ground Lease as of December 31, 2022 is 11.4 years.

The following is a maturity analysis of the annual undiscounted cash flows of the estimated operating lease liabilities as of December 31, 2022 (in thousands):

Year ending December 31:
2023	$	163
2024		163
2025		163
2026		163
2027		163
Thereafter		1,044
	$	1,859

A reconciliation of the undiscounted cash flows to the operating lease liabilities recognized in the consolidated balance sheet as of December 31, 2022 follows (in thousands):

Undiscounted cash flows of the operating lease	$	1,859
Unamortized discount		870
Total operating lease liability		989
Current portion of operating lease liability		42
Operating lease liability, net of current portion	$	947

During the year ended December 31, 2022, the Company entered into a short term lease arrangement for digital currency mining equipment. The term of the operating lease was two months and concluded in May 2022.  There were no variable charges under this arrangement.  For the year ended December 31, 2022, lease expense related to this arrangement of $1.3 million was recorded in operating expenses in the consolidated statement of operations.  The Company periodically enters into short term lease arrangements for operating equipment and recorded $398,000 under these short term lease arrangements in operating expenses in the consolidated statement of operations for the year ended December 31, 2022.