Correspondence 0001213900-24-003416 from Sphere 3D Corp. (ANY)
Sphere 3D Corp.
Date: Jan. 12, 2024 · CIK: 0001591956 · Accession: 0001213900-24-003416
AI Filing Summary & Sentiment
File numbers found in text: 001-36532
Referenced dates: December 12, 2023
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CORRESP
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M. ALI PANJWANI, ESQ.
Partner
DIRECT TEL: 212-326-0820
FAX: 212-326-0806
ali.panjwani@pryorcashman.com
January 12, 2024
Via Edgar
Ms. Kate Tillan
Mr. Rolf Sundwall
Securities and Exchange Commission
Division of Corporation Finance
100 F Street, N.E.
Washington, D.C. 20549
Re:
Sphere 3D Corp.
Form 10-K for the Fiscal Year Ended December 31, 2022
Filed March 31, 2023
Form 10-Q for the Quarterly Period Ended March 31, 2023
Filed May 11, 2023
File No. 001-36532
Ladies and Gentlemen:
On behalf of our client, Sphere
3D Corp., a corporation organized under the laws of Ontario, Canada (the “Company”), and pursuant to the applicable provisions
of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”), and the rules promulgated thereunder, please
find the responses of the Company to comments received from the Staff of the Securities Exchange Commission (the “Staff”)
in a letter dated December 12, 2023 (the “Comment Letter”) with respect to the above-referenced Annual Report on Form 10-K
(the “Form 10-K”) and Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q (the “Form 10-Q”) of the Company. The discussion below is
presented in the order of the numbered comments in the Comment Letter. Certain capitalized terms set forth in this letter are used as
defined in the Form 10-K and Form 10-Q, as applicable.
Securities and Exchange Commission
January 12, 2024
Page 2
The Company has asked us to convey the following
responses to the Staff:
Form 10-K for the Fiscal Year Ended December 31, 2022
Financial Statements
Note 2. Summary of Significant Accounting Policies
Digital Assets, page F-13
1. We acknowledge your responses to comment 5. Please tell us whether you use the spot price obtained
from the CME to value your bitcoin holdings for impairment testing purposes, and, if so, please address the following:
● Tell
us how the source you use to determine fair value considered ASC 820,including ASC 820-10-35-5.
Tell us whether your source is a principal market with the greatest volume and level of activity
for bitcoin. While your response to comment 6 told us that CME has the greatest volume and
level of activity, you did not address whether bitcoin may be traded on CME and whether CME
may be a principal market.
● If
your source does not meet the definition of a principal market under ASC 820, identify your
principal market for us, and explain why it is a principal market for bitcoin. Refer to Example
4 beginning at ASC 820-10-55-42 and, in the basis for conclusions, BC22 and BC23.
● With
respect to your response to the first bullet point of comment 5, revise future filings to
provide similar disclosure about your impairment testing.
Response: In
response to the Staff’s comment, the Company advises as follows:
● Upon
further review, we do not believe that CME is a principal market, as CME does not trade Bitcoin.
The Company notes that CME’s spot prices are sourced from cryptocurrency exchanges
and trading platforms including Bitstamp, Coinbase, Gemini, itBit, Kraken, and LMAX Digital.
The Company has performed a monthly comparison of the CME pricing used to price the Company’s
Bitcoin revenue against the prices published in Yahoo Finance, and determined the differences
to be immaterial.
● When
the Company sells its Bitcoin to generate cash to operate its business, the Bitcoin is sold
via the Company’s BitGo wallet using BitGo Prime Trading, which is not an exchange.
BitGo has represented to the Company that it does not disclose the exchanges on which it
sells digital assets. Therefore, after further evaluation of ASC 820-10-35-5 and 820-10-35-5A,
absent disclosure of this information from BitGo, the Company considers Coinbase to be Bitcoin’s
principal market. For the impairment analysis for the year ended December 31, 2022, to determine
if there is an impairment, the Company used the lowest intraday quoted Bitcoin price from
the Bitcoin USD (BTC-USD) historical data on Yahoo Finance to assess impairment. In accordance
with ASC 820-10-35-5A, the Company used Bitcoin prices derived from Yahoo Finance because
it is widely accessible. The Company notes that the prices on Yahoo Finance are based on
data from CoinMarketCap, which according to CoinMarketCap’s website, “ranks and
scores exchanges based on traffic, liquidity, and trading volume.” The Company believes
that given the Bitcoin prices and the number of Bitcoins mined by the Company during the
year ended December 31, 2022, any differences in pricing between the principal market and
Yahoo Finance, would not have a material impact on the impairment loss recorded.
● The
Company will revise future filings to provide similar disclosure about its impairment testing.
Securities and Exchange Commission
January 12, 2024
Page 3
Revenue
Recognition, page F-15
2. We
acknowledge your response to comment 6. Please respond to the following and revise your disclosure
in future filings to specifically address the following concerning your mining revenue recognition
under ASC 606:
● In
Note 14 on page 30 of your Form 10-Q for the quarterly period ended September 30, 2023, you
disclose that digital mining revenue is generated from two mining pool operators. Tell us
the name of the mining pool other than Foundry in which you participate. Tell us, and disclose,
the payment mechanism (Full Pay Per Share or otherwise) for each mining pool, and, if different
payment mechanisms, the proportion of revenue recognized under each for fiscal 2021 and 2022
and the nine months ended September 30, 2023.
● Since
you told us that you provide continuous performance across more than one day, tell us what
constitutes contract inception and contract duration and the reasons why. Cite the relevant
ASC 606 guidance that supports your determination. Given that you told us that your contracts
can be terminated at any time without penalty, tell us your consideration for the guidance
in Examples 1 and 2 of Question 7 and of Question 8 to the FASB Revenue Recognition Implementation
Q&As and whether the mining pool agreement is continuously renewed and the duration of
your contracts is less than 24 hours.
● Disclose,
similar to your response, that the contracts are terminable at any time by either party without
compensation to the other party for such termination.
● Assuming
you conclude that your contracts are continuously renewed, tell us whether the rate of payment
remains the same upon renewal and whether your customer’s option to renew represents
a material right that results in a separate performance obligation as contemplated in ASC
606-10-55-42.
● With
respect to the variability associated with the consideration receivable, address how the
block reward portion of the consideration cannot be reasonably estimated (and should be fully
constrained) if network difficulty changes about every two weeks, block rewards change about
every four years, and contract duration is one day or less. In this regard, it appears for
FPPS contracts that the only variable at contract inception is the number of hashes you will
perform, which is wholly in your control and would appear to be reasonably estimable.
● You
told us that you measure the noncash consideration in accordance with ASC 606-10-32-21 and
606-10-32-23 on the date earned. Tell us in more detail how you perform your measurement
and the time used for measurement in relation to the period over which your compensation
is determined by the pool operator and whether or not that timing is consistently applied.
● Revise
your disclosure to clarify the time and date when you measure the noncash consideration (for
example, if true, using your timing of the bitcoin spot price on the date of contract inception)
and when you recognize the noncash consideration (for example, if true, on the same day that
control of the contracted service transfers to the mining pool operator (i.e., the customer),
which is the same day as contract inception).
● You
told us that your performance obligation is the provision of computing power. Tell us your
consideration of disclosing your performance obligation as a service to perform hash computations
for the mining pool operator, or something similar, to align with the promise under your
agreement.
● In
your Step 3 analysis, your response indicates that under section 6 of the Foundry agreement,
your share of the block reward is based on the expected value from the block reward, but
that you recognize revenue when the mining pool operator successfully places a block on the
blockchain. If network block subsidies are based on the total amount of block subsidies that
are expected to be generated on the bitcoin network as a whole, at a minimum under the FPPS
payout method, regardless of whether the mining pool operator successfully records a block
to the blockchain, then reconcile your statements for us and revise your disclosure accordingly.
Securities and Exchange Commission
January 12, 2024
Page 4
● Disclose,
similar to your response, the payment mechanisms that your mining pool agreements utilize
(the Full Pay Per Share (FPPS) payout method or otherwise) and summarize the nature of each
component of your consideration (i.e., network block subsidies, network transaction fees,
and pool operating fees). It should be clear from the disclosure whether the amounts are
calculated based on expected or actual amounts. For example, if true, disclose that network
block subsidies are based on the total amount of block subsidies that are expected to be
generated on the bitcoin network as a whole during the 24-hour period beginning at midnight
UTC daily (i.e., the measurement period), regardless of whether the mining pool operator
successfully records a block to the blockchain, while network transaction fees are based
on the total amount of transaction fees and block rewards that are actually generated on
the blockchain network as a whole during the measurement period.
Response: In
response to the Staff’s comment, the Company advises as follows:
● The
name of the Company’s other mining pool is Luxor Technology Corp. (“Luxor”).
● The
payment mechanism for both Luxor and Foundry is Full Pay Per Share (“FPPS”).
The Company will disclose the payment mechanism for each mining pool in future filings.
● In
accordance with ASC 606-10-25-1, contract inception occurs when the Company provides computing
power to Foundry or Luxor, which is the beginning of the 24 hour period (12:00am UTC time)
and the contract duration is 24 hours.
The
Company’s proportionate amount of the block reward and the transaction fee reward earned are calculated at the end of each transactional
day (which, under each of the Luxor and Foundry service agreements, is midnight-to-midnight). The Bitcoin is distributed daily to the
Company. Daily Earnings are calculated from 12:00am to 12:00am UTC time, and the rewards are credited one hour later at 1:00am UTC time.
In
accordance with Question 7 to the FASB Revenue Recognition Implementation Q&As, as the contract can be terminated by either party
without compensating the other party for the termination, the duration of the contract does not extend beyond the goods or services already
delivered, which is 24-hrs, as that is the measurement period, or duration.
For
the above reasons, contract inception occurs when computing power is contributed to the pool, which is 12:00am UTC time and the contract
duration is 24 hours.
● In
accordance with Question 7 to the FASB Revenue Recognition Implementation Q&As, as the