STOCK OPTION EXPENSE	3 Months Ended
Mar. 31, 2023
STOCK OPTION EXPENSE
STOCK OPTION EXPENSE	12. STOCK OPTION EXPENSE In March 2021, three officers were granted stock options for the purchase of a total of 1,350,000 shares under the 2021 Stock Option Plan. The options had a ten-year term and were to vest in their entirety three years from the grant date. The fair value of the 2021 grant was $10.21 per share using the Black-Scholes option pricing model with a risk-free rate of 1.20%, an exercise price of $13.00 per share and a volatility factor of 92.66%. The options as of December 2022 were considered deeply out-of-the-money as the exercise price was significantly higher than the then-current average market price. In December 2022, the board of directors canceled these options with no replacement awards or compensation to be provided to the three officers of the Company. Stock options granted to executives and other employees are expensed for accounting purposes under the Stock Compensation Topic of the FASB Accounting Standards Codification (ASC). ASC 718-20-35-9 provides that a cancellation of an award that is not accompanied by the concurrent grant of (or offer to grant) a replacement award or other valuable consideration shall be accounted for as a repurchase for no consideration. Accordingly, any previously unrecognized compensation cost shall be recognized at the cancellation date. Under this guidance, the Company accelerated the recognition of all future stock option expense related to the option grants cancelled in December 2022. The impact to the financial statements for the year ended December 31, 2022 was the recognition of an additional $5.5 million in stock option expense. Stock option expense was $0 and $1,132,078 for the three months ended March 31, 2023 and 2022, respectively.

STOCK OPTION EXPENSE

3 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2023

12. STOCK OPTION EXPENSE

In March 2021, three officers were granted stock options for the purchase of a total of 1,350,000 shares under the 2021 Stock Option Plan. The options had a ten-year term and were to vest in their entirety three years from the grant date. The fair value of the 2021 grant was $10.21 per share using the Black-Scholes option pricing model with a risk-free rate of 1.20%, an exercise price of $13.00 per share and a volatility factor of 92.66%. The options as of December 2022 were considered deeply out-of-the-money as the exercise price was significantly higher than the then-current average market price. In December 2022, the board of directors canceled these options with no replacement awards or compensation to be provided to the three officers of the Company.

Stock options granted to executives and other employees are expensed for accounting purposes under the Stock Compensation Topic of the FASB Accounting Standards Codification (ASC). ASC 718-20-35-9 provides that a cancellation of an award that is not accompanied by the concurrent grant of (or offer to grant) a replacement award or other valuable consideration shall be accounted for as a repurchase for no consideration. Accordingly, any previously unrecognized compensation cost shall be recognized at the cancellation date. Under this guidance, the Company accelerated the recognition of all future stock option expense related to the option grants cancelled in December 2022. The impact to the financial statements for the year ended December 31, 2022 was the recognition of an additional $5.5 million in stock option expense. Stock option expense was $0 and $1,132,078 for the three months ended March 31, 2023 and 2022, respectively.