Stronghold Digital Mining Inc (SDIG) 2022 Q4 法說會逐字稿

Good morning, and welcome to Stronghold Digital Mining Conference Call for the Fourth Quarter and Full Year Ended December 31, 2022. My name is Justin, and I'll be your operator this morning.

早上好，歡迎來到截至 2022 年 12 月 31 日的第四季度和全年的 Stronghold Digital Mining 電話會議。我叫賈斯汀，今天早上我將是你的接線員。

Before this call, Stronghold issued its results for the fourth quarter and full year 2022 in a press release, which is available in Investor Section of the company's website at www.strongholddigitalmining.com. You can find the link to the Investor Section at the top of the homepage.

在此電話會議之前，Stronghold 在新聞稿中發布了第四季度和 2022 年全年的業績，該新聞稿可在公司網站 www.strongholddigitalmining.com 的投資者部分獲取。您可以在主頁頂部找到指向投資者部分的鏈接。

Joining us on today's call are Stronghold's co-chairman and CEO, Greg Beard; and CFO, Matt Smith. (Operator Instructions)

Stronghold 的聯合主席兼首席執行官 Greg Beard 與我們一起參加了今天的電話會議；和首席財務官馬特史密斯。 （操作員說明）

Before we begin, Alex Kovtun from Gateway Group will make an introductory statement. Mr. Kovtun, please proceed.

在我們開始之前，來自 Gateway Group 的 Alex Kovtun 將做介紹性發言。 Kovtun 先生，請繼續。

Great. Thank you, operator. Good morning, everyone, and welcome. Today's slide presentation, along with our earnings release and financial disclosures were posted to our website earlier today and can be accessed on our website at www.strongholddigitalmining.com. Some statements we're making today may be considered forward-looking statements under securities law and involve a number of risks and uncertainties. As a result, we caution you that there are a number of factors, many of which are beyond our control, which could cause actual results and events to differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements. For more detailed risks, uncertainties and assumptions relating to our forward-looking statements, please see the disclosures in our earnings release and public filings made with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

偉大的。謝謝你，運營商。大家早上好，歡迎光臨。今天的幻燈片演示以及我們的收益發布和財務披露已於今天早些時候發佈到我們的網站上，可以在我們的網站 www.strongholddigitalmining.com 上訪問。根據證券法，我們今天所做的一些聲明可能被視為前瞻性聲明，並涉及許多風險和不確定性。因此，我們提醒您，有許多因素（其中許多是我們無法控制的）可能導致實際結果和事件與前瞻性陳述中描述的結果和事件存在重大差異。有關與我們的前瞻性陳述相關的更詳細的風險、不確定性和假設，請參閱我們的收益發布和向美國證券交易委員會提交的公開文件中的披露。

We disclaim any obligation or undertaking to update forward-looking statements to reflect circumstances or events that occur after the date the forward-looking statements are made, except as required by law. We will also discuss non-GAAP financial metrics and encourage you to read our disclosures and the reconciliation tables to applicable GAAP measures in our earnings release carefully as you consider these metrics. We expect to file our annual report on Form 10-K by the end of the week with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which sets forth detailed disclosures and description of our business as well as uncertainties in other variable circumstances, including, but not limited to, risks and uncertainties identified under the caption Risk Factors in our previously filed quarterly reports on Form 10-Q filed on May 16, 2022, August 18, 2022 and November 10, 2022, and our to-be-filed annual report on Form 10-K. You may access Stronghold's Securities and Exchange Commission filings for free by visiting the SEC website at www.sec.gov or Stronghold's Investor Relations website at ir.strongholddigitalmining.com.

除非法律要求，否則我們不承擔更新前瞻性陳述以反映前瞻性陳述作出之日之後發生的情況或事件的任何義務或承諾。我們還將討論非 GAAP 財務指標，並鼓勵您在考慮這些指標時仔細閱讀我們的披露和我們收益發布中適用的 GAAP 指標的調節表。我們希望在本週末之前向美國證券交易委員會提交我們的 10-K 表格年度報告，其中詳細披露和描述我們的業務以及其他可變情況下的不確定性，包括但不限於在我們之前於 2022 年 5 月 16 日、2022 年 8 月 18 日和 2022 年 11 月 10 日提交的 Form 10-Q 季度報告以及我們將提交的 Form 10 年度報告中的風險因素標題下確定的風險和不確定性-K。您可以通過訪問 SEC 網站 www.sec.gov 或 Stronghold 的投資者關係網站 ir.strongholddigitalmining.com 免費訪問 Stronghold 的證券交易委員會文件。

I would like to remind everyone that this call is being recorded and will be made available for replay via the link available in the Investor Relations section of Stronghold's website.

我想提醒大家，這個電話正在被錄音，可以通過 Stronghold 網站投資者關係部分的鏈接進行重播。

Now I would like to turn the call over to Stronghold's Co-Chairman and CEO, Greg Beard. Greg?

現在我想把電話轉給 Stronghold 的聯席主席兼首席執行官 Greg Beard。格雷格？

Thank you, Alex. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us on our fourth quarter and full year 2022 earnings call. For today's call, we are going to reference an associated slide presentation that is available through the webcast and on the IR portion of our corporate website. I want to start by thanking our employees for their ongoing hard work and dedication to our mission during a difficult time in our markets. While 2022 was a challenging year for our business and most public bitcoin mining companies, we believe that we undertook several important steps to survive the downturn in the crypto markets and best position Stronghold for long-term success.

謝謝你，亞歷克斯。大家早上好，感謝您加入我們的第四季度和 2022 年全年財報電話會議。對於今天的電話會議，我們將參考相關的幻燈片演示，該演示可通過網絡廣播和我們公司網站的 IR 部分獲得。首先，我要感謝我們的員工在市場困難時期所做的不懈努力和對我們使命的奉獻。雖然 2022 年對我們的業務和大多數公共比特幣礦業公司來說是充滿挑戰的一年，但我們相信我們採取了幾個重要步驟來度過加密貨幣市場的低迷期，並為長期成功佔據最佳位置。

We responded proactively to challenges in both the crypto and power markets, while prioritizing liquidity to endure.

我們積極應對加密市場和電力市場的挑戰，同時優先考慮流動性。

Before turning the call over to our CFO, Matt Smith, for a detailed review of our financial results, I would like to touch on some of these highlights from our business transformation over the last year and why we remain excited about the year ahead.

在將電話轉給我們的首席財務官 Matt Smith 詳細審查我們的財務業績之前，我想談談我們過去一年業務轉型的一些亮點，以及為什麼我們對來年仍然感到興奮。

Let's start on Slide 3. As a reminder to everyone on the call, Stronghold owns and operates 2 waste coal reclamation facilities in Pennsylvania, Scrubgrass and Panther Creek. Over the course of 2022, we have moved over 1 million tons of coal refuse from the environment and mined over 2,000 bitcoin. We are currently at 2.6 exahash of hash rate capacity and have the ability to get to 4 exahash with the already built and ready-to-use slots at our data centers.

讓我們從幻燈片 3 開始。提醒所有參會人員，Stronghold 在賓夕法尼亞州、Scrubgrass 和 Panther Creek 擁有並經營 2 個廢煤回收設施。在 2022 年期間，我們已經從環境中清除了超過 100 萬噸煤炭垃圾，並開采了超過 2,000 個比特幣。我們目前的哈希率容量為 2.6 exahash，並且有能力通過我們數據中心中已建成且隨時可用的插槽達到 4 exahash。

Moving to Slide 4. Back in August, on our second quarter 2022 earnings call, we outlined the strategy to rapidly delever our balance sheet, enhance liquidity, improve efficiency and opportunistically build our mining fleet to better position Stronghold for success and ultimately maximize shareholder value. While there's still work to be done, we have made considerable progress on all fronts and believe that we have a robust platform to grow value for shareholders. First, the vertically integrated business model is working. We are constantly looking at grid prices and bitcoin mining economics and choosing whether to self-power our Bitcoin money operations, sell power to the grid or import power from the grid to power miners when grid pricing is lower than our variable cost of power. As I will further elaborate, just in the last few months, we have realized significant benefits from both selling power to the grid and buying power from the grid.

轉到幻燈片 4。早在 8 月，在我們 2022 年第二季度的財報電話會議上，我們概述了快速去槓桿我們的資產負債表、增強流動性、提高效率和機會主義地建立我們的挖礦隊伍以更好地定位 Stronghold 以取得成功並最終最大化股東價值的戰略.雖然還有很多工作要做，但我們在各個方面都取得了長足進步，相信我們擁有一個強大的平台來為股東增加價值。首先，垂直整合的商業模式正在發揮作用。我們一直在關注電網價格和比特幣挖礦經濟學，並選擇在電網定價低於我們的可變電力成本時，是自行為我們的比特幣貨幣業務供電、向電網出售電力還是從電網進口電力給礦工。正如我將進一步闡述的那樣，就在過去的幾個月裡，我們已經從向電網出售電力和從電網購買電力中獲得了巨大的好處。

Moving on to our balance sheet. We recently completed a 7-month process of restructuring virtually every piece of material debt on our balance sheet. Since June of 2022, we have reduced our debt by nearly 60% to $60 million, which we believe is a manageable level in the context of our cash flow expectations. We also have no mandatory amortization until July 2024, which has enhanced (inaudible) liquidity and flexibility. With the restrictions behind us, we are now laser-focused on scaling and optimizing our Bitcoin lending operations at each of our data centers.

轉到我們的資產負債表。我們最近完成了為期 7 個月的重組過程，幾乎重組了我們資產負債表上的每一項重大債務。自 2022 年 6 月以來，我們已將債務減少近 60% 至 6000 萬美元，我們認為，在我們的現金流預期背景下，這是一個可控的水平。我們在 2024 年 7 月之前也沒有強制性攤銷，這增強了（聽不清）流動性和靈活性。有了這些限制，我們現在專注於擴展和優化我們每個數據中心的比特幣借貸業務。

We are raising our hash rate guidance back to 4 exahash and believe that we will be there by the end of the year, if not sooner. Through purchasing miners in a distressed, oversupplied market and through entering into hosting agreements, such as the previously executed foundry deal, we think we can grow hash rate in a highly capital-efficient manner.

我們正在將我們的哈希率指導值提高到 4 exahash，並且相信我們將在今年年底達到目標，甚至更早。通過在陷入困境、供過於求的市場中購買礦機，並通過簽訂託管協議，例如之前執行的代工協議，我們認為我們可以以高度資本效率的方式提高哈希率。

Finally, on the cost side, we have also made progress in materially reducing expenses across our business. We have done this through a combination of completing several one-time projects and rightsizing our business through in-sourcing certain functions and improving overall efficiency to adjust to the current market environment. During the fourth quarter of 2022, we began to see the benefits of these initiatives in our financials as our cash G&A expense is now trending below $20 million on a run rate basis. Last quarter, we successfully completed planned outages at both our Scrubgrass and Panther Creek plants, which represented the last of the major planned investment cycle. We expect to see a more consistent and reliable power generation moving forward at both facilities and have been pleased with the post-outage performance so far.

最後，在成本方面，我們在大幅降低整個業務的開支方面也取得了進展。我們通過完成幾個一次性項目和通過內包某些功能和提高整體效率來調整我們的業務以適應當前市場環境來實現這一目標。在 2022 年第四季度，我們開始在我們的財務中看到這些舉措的好處，因為我們的現金 G&A 費用現在按運行率計算低於 2000 萬美元。上個季度，我們成功完成了 Scrubgrass 和 Panther Creek 工廠的計劃停運，這是主要計劃投資週期的最後一個。我們希望看到這兩個設施的發電更加一致和可靠，並且對迄今為止停電後的表現感到滿意。

We began to realize the benefits of the investments that were made during the fourth quarter and continue to believe that we will achieve an estimated net cost of power of $45 to $50 per megawatt hour in the first quarter of 2023, based on our results and performance to date. We have also been able to generate value from selling beneficial use ash, a byproduct of our coal refuse to energy process to offset expenses. In 2022, we realized a benefit of approximately $300,000 of which $200,000 came in the fourth quarter from a combination of incremental revenue and avoided disposal costs via sales of the beneficial use ash. Ash is an ancillary business revenue stream that we expect to grow further and realize the benefit of at least $1 million during 2023.

我們開始意識到第四季度投資的好處，並繼續相信，根據我們的結果和業績，我們將在 2023 年第一季度實現每兆瓦時 45 至 50 美元的估計淨電力成本迄今為止。我們還能夠通過出售有益用途的灰燼來產生價值，灰燼是我們將煤炭垃圾轉化為能源的副產品，以抵消開支。 2022 年，我們實現了約 300,000 美元的收益，其中 200,000 美元來自第四季度的增量收入和通過銷售有益用途灰分避免的處置成本。 Ash 是一種輔助業務收入流，我們預計該收入流將進一步增長並在 2023 年實現至少 100 萬美元的收益。

Moving to Slide 5. As I mentioned, we believe that the vertically integrated model is working and continues to prove its value. The optionality to sell power to the grid provides a natural hedge for Bitcoin mining economics, which we saw over the summer and during the fourth quarter. Additionally, our model provides the ability to sell to the grid when power prices spike and lower plant output to import from the grid when power prices are below our variable cost of generating power. We have realized benefits doing both in just the last few months. During the fourth quarter, as Bitcoin prices continue to slump, we showcased the benefits of owning our own power plants, and how our power market optionality provides us with strategic advantages over our peers. During the quarter, we experienced 2 extremes, record-high PJM power prices in December and a record low Bitcoin hash price in November, and we're able to flexibly shift between selling power to the grid and using our self-generated power to mine bitcoin. Between December 23 and December 25, Winter Storm Elliott dictated that PJM declare a state in emergency.

轉到幻燈片 5。正如我提到的，我們相信垂直整合模型正在發揮作用並繼續證明其價值。向電網出售電力的選擇權為比特幣挖礦經濟提供了天然的對沖，我們在夏季和第四季度看到了這一點。此外，我們的模型能夠在電價飆升時向電網出售電力，並在電價低於我們的可變發電成本時降低工廠輸出以從電網進口。在過去的幾個月裡，我們已經意識到這樣做的好處。在第四季度，隨著比特幣價格持續下跌，我們展示了擁有自己的發電廠的好處，以及我們的電力市場選擇性如何為我們提供優於同行的戰略優勢。在本季度，我們經歷了 2 個極端，12 月創歷史新高的 PJM 電價和 11 月創歷史新低的比特幣哈希價格，我們能夠靈活地在向電網出售電力和使用我們自己產生的電力進行挖礦之間切換比特幣。 12 月 23 日至 12 月 25 日期間，冬季風暴埃利奧特要求 PJM 宣布進入緊急狀態。

On the morning of the 23rd, we proactively shut down our Bitcoin mining operations and sent power to an extremely supply-constrained grid for the next several days, helping to balance the grid and benefiting consumers. During this period, we realized grid prices in excess of $1,000 per megawatt hour, more than 10x what we would have made if we converted that power into Bitcoin, because we were able to deliver power when other generators could not. More recently, we have experienced grid prices below $20 per megawatt hour and even negative at times in March and the lower plant output to realize savings versus our available cost to generate power. The chart on the right of the slide highlights how we can adjust our operations depending on power prices and hash price to optimize revenues with our vertically integrated model.

23 日上午，我們主動關閉了我們的比特幣挖礦業務，並在未來幾天向供應極其緊張的電網供電，幫助平衡電網並造福消費者。在此期間，我們意識到電網價格超過每兆瓦時 1,000 美元，是我們將這些電力轉換為比特幣時的 10 倍以上，因為我們能夠在其他發電機無法提供電力時提供電力。最近，我們的電網價格低於每兆瓦時 20 美元，在 3 月份有時甚至為負值，而且與我們可用的發電成本相比，實現節約的電廠產量較低。幻燈片右側的圖表突出顯示了我們如何根據電價和哈希價格調整我們的運營，以通過我們的垂直整合模型優化收入。

Let's move to the next slide. As I mentioned earlier, we spent the last 7 months taking our debt from nearly $150 million to $60 million through a series of transactions with our lenders and debt holders. First, in August, we completed the extinguishment of approximately $67 million in debt associated with our NYDIG equipment financing via a return of approximately 26,000 Bitcoin miners. Also in August, we eliminated about 11 million of convertible notes by restriking approximately 6 million warrants. In October, we converted our WhiteHawk equipment financing with a 13-month tenor into a first lien note with a 36-month term and upsized the financing by $23 million.

讓我們轉到下一張幻燈片。正如我之前提到的，在過去的 7 個月裡，我們通過與貸方和債務持有人的一系列交易，將債務從近 1.5 億美元減少到 6000 萬美元。首先，在 8 月，我們通過返還約 26,000 名比特幣礦工，完成了與 NYDIG 設備融資相關的約 6,700 萬美元債務的清償。同樣在 8 月，我們通過重新行使約 600 萬份認股權證，淘汰了約 1100 萬份可轉換票據。 10 月，我們將期限為 13 個月的 WhiteHawk 設備融資轉換為期限為 36 個月的第一留置權票據，並將融資額增加了 2300 萬美元。

This February, we completed the exchange transaction with our convertible note holders to convert about $80 million of debt and accrued interest into convertible preferred stock. Finally, also in February, we amended our WhiteHawk note, postponing mandatory amortization until July 2024 and significantly loosening the financial covenants for 2023 and 2024 to strengthen the company's ability to withstand industry pressure (inaudible). As a result of these transactions, we have now successfully restructured nearly our entire balance sheet to make Stronghold more resilient and provide a platform to focus on accretive opportunities.

今年 2 月，我們完成了與可轉換票據持有人的交換交易，將約 8000 萬美元的債務和應計利息轉換為可轉換優先股。最後，同樣在 2 月，我們修改了 WhiteHawk 票據，將強制攤銷推遲到 2024 年 7 月，並大幅放寬了 2023 年和 2024 年的財務契約，以加強公司承受行業壓力的能力（聽不清）。由於這些交易，我們現在已經成功地重組了幾乎整個資產負債表，使 Stronghold 更具彈性，並提供了一個專注於增值機會的平台。

Moving to Slide 7. Our enhanced liquidity position and improved cost structure gives us the flexibility to manage through this down cycle and be optimistic by discipline in growing our minor fleet without additional leverage. Today, Stronghold's Bitcoin mining fleet totals almost 30,000 miners with hash rate capacity exceeding 2.6 exahash per second. 4,500 of these miners are associated with a definitive hosting agreement we signed with foundry in November with total hash capacity of approximately 420 petahash per second. Since then, we've expanded our partnership and signed a 2-year hosting agreement whereby foundry will fully participate in our vertically integrated business model. While hosting is not our core focus, this unique agreement is highly beneficial for Stronghold, and demonstrates our ability to creatively increase hash rate without significant capital investment.

轉到幻燈片 7。我們增強的流動性狀況和改進的成本結構使我們能夠靈活地管理這個下行週期，並在沒有額外槓桿的情況下通過紀律樂觀地發展我們的小型機隊。如今，Stronghold 的比特幣挖礦車隊共有近 30,000 名礦工，哈希率超過每秒 2.6 exahash。這些礦工中有 4,500 名與我們在 11 月與鑄造廠簽署的最終託管協議相關聯，總哈希容量約為每秒 420 petahash。從那時起，我們擴大了合作夥伴關係並簽署了一份為期 2 年的託管協議，據此，代工廠將全面參與我們的垂直整合業務模式。雖然託管不是我們的核心重點，但這項獨特的協議對 Stronghold 非常有利，並展示了我們在無需大量資本投資的情況下創造性地提高哈希率的能力。

The hosting agreement allows us to quickly plug miners into our Panther Creek data center with no material CapEx. This hosting deal and potentially other similar hosting deals offer us a natural pathway to fill a small portion of our open slots, while we continue to thoughtfully pursue purchasing wholly owned miners.

託管協議使我們能夠快速將礦工接入我們的 Panther Creek 數據中心，而無需實際資本支出。這項託管交易和可能的其他類似託管交易為我們提供了一條自然途徑來填補我們的一小部分空缺職位，同時我們繼續深思熟慮地尋求購買全資礦工。

Finally, an update on MinerVa. We previously announced we should expect no additional deliveries from MinerVa because of the uncertainty at the time. However, MinerVa supplies to the upside and we recently announced that they have now fulfilled approximately 85% of our initial order from 2021, leaving only 230 petahash per second remaining to be delivered. And after a significant effort by our operations and engineering teams, we believe that miners received from MinerVa are now performing largely in line with manufacture expectations.

最後，關於 MinerVa 的更新。我們之前宣布，由於當時的不確定性，我們預計不會從 MinerVa 獲得額外的交付。然而，MinerVa 的供應情況良好，我們最近宣布他們已經完成了我們 2021 年初始訂單的大約 85%，每秒只剩下 230 petahash 有待交付。經過我們的運營和工程團隊的巨大努力，我們相信從 MinerVa 收到的礦工現在的表現基本符合製造商的預期。

With that, I'd like to pass it over to Matt Smith for a financial update.

有了這個，我想把它傳遞給馬特史密斯進行財務更新。

Thanks, Greg. I'll start with a review of our fourth quarter and full year 2022 results. Keep in mind that our fourth quarter results were impacted by 2 extremes, record high PJM power prices in December and record low Bitcoin hash price in November. Revenue for the fourth quarter was $23 million, a 38% increase compared to $17 million in the same quarter a year ago. During the fourth quarter of 2022, our Energy segment had approximately $15 million of revenue. We also mined almost 450 Bitcoin with total Mining segment revenue of approximately $8 million. For the full year, revenue was $106 million, an increase of well over 200% compared to $31 million in the prior year.

謝謝，格雷格。我將從回顧我們的第四季度和 2022 年全年業績開始。請記住，我們第四季度的業績受到兩個極端情況的影響，12 月創紀錄的 PJM 電力價格和 11 月創紀錄的低比特幣哈希價格。第四季度收入為 2300 萬美元，與去年同期的 1700 萬美元相比增長 38%。 2022 年第四季度，我們的能源部門的收入約為 1500 萬美元。我們還開采了近 450 個比特幣，採礦部門的總收入約為 800 萬美元。全年收入為 1.06 億美元，與上年的 3100 萬美元相比增長了 200% 以上。

During the fourth quarter, we began to realize the benefits of the investments and planned maintenance events that were made in our Scrubgrass and Panther Creek plants to improve plant efficiency and reliability. This was especially true (inaudible) during the period of December 23 through December 25 when many plants in PJM were unable to deliver power to the grid when called upon. Adjusted EBITDA during the quarter was approximately $5.2 million compared to approximately $0.3 million in the same quarter a year ago and negative $3 million in the third quarter of 2022. It is important to note that the company's intense focus on cash cost reductions began to materialize in the fourth quarter. During the quarter, we continued to operate in an environmentally beneficial way, removing approximately 295,000 tons of coal refuse from piles and returning approximately 173,000 tons of beneficial use ash to remediate these toxic coal piles.

在第四季度，我們開始意識到我們的 Scrubgrass 和 Panther Creek 工廠為提高工廠效率和可靠性而進行的投資和計劃維護活動的好處。在 12 月 23 日至 12 月 25 日期間尤其如此（聽不清），當時 PJM 的許多工廠無法在需要時向電網供電。本季度調整後的 EBITDA 約為 520 萬美元，而去年同期約為 30 萬美元，2022 年第三季度為負 300 萬美元。值得注意的是，公司對現金成本削減的高度關注開始在第四季。本季度，我們繼續以環保方式運營，從煤堆中清除了約 295,000 噸煤渣，並回收了約 173,000 噸有益用途的灰燼，以修復這些有毒煤堆。

Moving on to Slide 9 to discuss a fresh look at guidance for the next 12 months. You will find that the drivers of our cash flow have shifted from our prior guidance, and yet our guidance is quite similar to what we previously communicated. When we last provided guidance, power prices were more attractive than Bitcoin mining economics. Since then, (inaudible) power prices have fallen, but hash prices risen, and we now expect to exit the year at 4 exahash instead of 3. This illustrates the strength of our business model. It is important to note that our hash rate guidance does not include 25 megawatts of owned end-to-end data center infrastructure, including 20 of our proprietary StrongBoxes, transformers, breakers and switchgear that are currently in inventory, waiting to be deployed. This is almost 1 exahash of upside to our current guidance.

轉到幻燈片 9，討論對未來 12 個月指南的全新看法。你會發現我們現金流的驅動因素已經從我們之前的指導轉變，但我們的指導與我們之前傳達的非常相似。當我們上次提供指導時，電價比比特幣挖礦經濟學更具吸引力。從那以後，（聽不清）電價下降，但哈希價格上漲，我們現在預計今年以 4 exahash 而不是 3 exahash 結束。這說明了我們商業模式的優勢。重要的是要注意，我們的哈希率指南不包括 25 兆瓦的自有端到端數據中心基礎設施，包括 20 個我們專有的 StrongBoxes、變壓器、斷路器和開關設備，它們目前在庫存中，等待部署。這幾乎是我們當前指導的 1 exahash 上行空間。

I will now turn the call back over to Greg for closing remarks.

我現在將把電話轉回給 Greg 作結束語。

Thank you, Matt. In summary, we believe that we've made significant progress on our strategic plan to enhance liquidity, improve operational efficiency, opportunistically build our mining fleet and ultimately maximize shareholder value. Our vertical integration and power market optionality continues to provide us with strategic advantages over many of our peers as does our data center infrastructure that is fully built out with additional slots open.

謝謝你，馬特。總而言之，我們認為我們在增強流動性、提高運營效率、機會主義地建立我們的採礦隊伍並最終實現股東價值最大化的戰略計劃方面取得了重大進展。我們的垂直整合和電力市場可選性繼續為我們提供優於許多同行的戰略優勢，我們的數據中心基礎設施也是如此，該基礎設施已完全建成並開放了額外的插槽。

With that, operator, let's open the call up for questions.

有了這個，接線員，讓我們打開問題電話。

(Operator Instructions) And our first question comes from Chase White from Compass Point Research & Trading, LLC.

（操作員說明）我們的第一個問題來自 Compass Point Research & Trading, LLC 的 Chase White。

So just curious, I mean, your fuel costs were like 60% of what they were in the third quarter and the prior quarter. So just trying to understand what drove that down so much? And was there like a one-time credit or something? And then I have a follow-up.

所以很好奇，我的意思是，你的燃料成本大約是第三季度和上一季度的 60%。所以只是想了解是什麼導致它如此下降？有沒有像一次性信貸之類的東西？然後我有一個後續行動。

Sure, Chase. So there was a combination of things. REC prices moved up considerably over the course of the fall and into the winter. Second, annually receive our waste coal tax credits once a year. And so you -- we earned those over the course of 2021. You received them in the fourth quarter of the next year. And so we received the waste coal tax credits during the course of the fourth quarter. And similarly, in 2023, we will receive the waste coal tax credits, again, kind of towards the fourth quarter. But then additionally, we spend a lot of time on fuel mix and optimizing it as we went through the outages.

當然，蔡斯。所以有一些事情的組合。從秋季到冬季，REC 價格大幅上漲。其次，每年一次獲得我們的廢煤稅收抵免。所以你 - 我們在 2021 年期間獲得了這些。你在明年第四季度收到了它們。因此，我們在第四季度期間獲得了廢煤稅收抵免。同樣，在 2023 年，我們將在第四季度再次獲得廢煤稅收抵免。但除此之外，我們還花了很多時間在燃料組合上，並在經歷停電時對其進行優化。

And as you know, 2022 was rampant with inflation throughout the supply chain, including diesel, ammonia, which drove up most of our input costs that we suffered from over the course of the second quarter. And as we moved out of the second and third quarter, we started to see some of the normalizing of diesel, ammonia, other costs flow through, and that led to a pretty meaningful improvement in costs over time over the course of the fall into the early 2023 period. We think that fuel costs will be down considerably in 2023 over 2022, the magnitude of which is yet to be determined, but there will be a mix improvement. We think there will be almost in every line item, we've seen costs start to trend in the right direction for us. And so we're optimistic about fuel costs in '23. RECs remain elevated. The tax credits, the plants ran much more in '22 than 2021. And so our tax credit in 2023 receipt will be up considerably from 2022 and so most things are going in our favor in fuel costs in 2023.

如您所知，2022 年整個供應鏈（包括柴油、氨）通貨膨脹猖獗，這推高了我們在第二季度遭受的大部分投入成本。當我們離開第二季度和第三季度時，我們開始看到柴油、氨和其他成本的一些正常化，這導致成本隨著時間的推移出現了相當有意義的改善。 2023 年初。我們認為 2023 年的燃料成本將比 2022 年大幅下降，具體幅度尚未確定，但會有所改善。我們認為幾乎每個項目都會有，我們已經看到成本開始朝著正確的方向發展。因此，我們對 23 年的燃料成本持樂觀態度。 REC 保持高位。稅收抵免，工廠在 22 年的運行比 2021 年要多得多。因此，我們 2023 年的稅收抵免收入將比 2022 年大幅增加，因此 2023 年的燃料成本大多數情況都對我們有利。

Got it. Very helpful. And then with things now moving in the right direction, I mean, do you guys expect to start holding Bitcoin again, building that up on your balance sheet? Or are you still kind of at the point where you need to be selling virtually all of it in order to ensure you (inaudible)?

知道了。很有幫助。然後現在事情朝著正確的方向發展，我的意思是，你們是否希望再次開始持有比特幣，將其建立在資產負債表上？還是您仍然處於需要出售幾乎所有產品以確保您（聽不清）的地步？

Well, every day is an optimization exercise every hour. You don't really want to turn the plants on and off rapidly, but we have the ability here to import at very low prices. We're not locked into a PPA or any sort of power agreement. And so we can either deliver power at our price or we can -- at our cost, or we can import and it's an optimization of cost of energy. And right now, obviously, with power prices off, it makes sense to convert as many electrons as we can that we're making or importing and maximizing our data center consumption of electricity and mining for Bitcoin. We're converting to Bitcoin. Revenue for Bitcoin is $90 to $100 per megawatt right now, far in excess of where power prices are. So it makes sense to mine optimally. I apologize, and just to sort of follow back up with your question.

好吧，每一天都是每小時的優化練習。你真的不想快速打開和關閉工廠，但我們有能力以非常低的價格進口。我們沒有被 PPA 或任何形式的權力協議所束縛。因此，我們要么以我們的價格提供電力，要么我們可以——以我們的成本提供電力，或者我們可以進口，這是能源成本的優化。現在，很明顯，隨著電價的下降，盡可能多地轉換我們正在製造或進口的電子，並最大限度地提高數據中心的電力消耗和比特幣開採是有意義的。我們正在轉換為比特幣。目前比特幣的收入為每兆瓦 90 到 100 美元，遠遠超過電價。因此，優化挖掘是有意義的。抱歉，只是為了跟進您的問題。

Our capital cycle in 2021 and '22 has largely come to an end. And so we have been ratably over the course of the fall and into the winter as we're working through these material deleveraging events, trying to get our balance sheet in the right place and cutting costs made sense to ratably monetize our Bitcoin and convert it to USD. And so -- and we avoided significant depreciation in the price of Bitcoin last year with that method. We continue to vigilantly manage leverage and optimize for liquidity. And so I think we're going to continue to take a balanced approach on having enough cash around to fund the business. Right now, we are in the market negotiating to fill our data centers as we described in our press release. And the best hedge we have for that is to hold some Bitcoin.

我們在 2021 年和 22 年的資本週期已基本結束。因此，在整個秋季和冬季，我們一直在努力應對這些實質性的去槓桿化事件，努力使我們的資產負債表處於正確的位置，並削減成本以合理地將我們的比特幣貨幣化並將其轉換美元。所以——我們去年用這種方法避免了比特幣價格的大幅貶值。我們繼續謹慎地管理槓桿並優化流動性。因此，我認為我們將繼續採取平衡的方法來獲得足夠的現金來為業務提供資金。目前，我們正在市場上進行談判，以填補我們在新聞稿中所述的數據中心。我們擁有的最好的對沖方法是持有一些比特幣。

If (inaudible) prices were to go up, which we have not seen yet, but if (inaudible) prices were to increase, holding Bitcoin is a nice hedge for that. And so we have -- I would say we've held a little bit more Bitcoin, a little bit longer as we've moved out of (inaudible) of the fall into this 2023 period. But I still expect that we're going to take a balanced approach and monetize ratably by just maybe over slightly longer holding periods.

如果（聽不清）價格上漲，我們還沒有看到，但如果（聽不清）價格上漲，持有比特幣是一個很好的對沖。所以我們 - 我想說我們持有的比特幣多了一點，隨著我們從秋季（聽不清）進入 2023 年，我們持有的時間更長了。但我仍然希望我們會採取一種平衡的方法，並通過稍微延長持有期來實現盈利。

And our next question comes from Chris Brendler from D.A. Davidson.

我們的下一個問題來自 D.A. 的 Chris Brendler。戴維森。

Congrats on the success here, pretty impressive. I wanted to basically follow up on Chase's question about expenses in terms of the mining operations and power sales, sort of quite lower than we expected on the fuel side. It didn't look like there was any one-timers or any significant one-timers in operation and maintenance this quarter. So I'm calculating it sort of close to a 50% non-GAAP gross margin. I just wanted to know what does that look like in the first quarter? I imagine it won't be quite as high and maybe if you could just talk about some of the puts and takes there.

祝賀這裡取得的成功，令人印象深刻。我想基本上跟進大通關於採礦業務和電力銷售費用的問題，這比我們在燃料方面的預期要低得多。本季度看起來沒有任何一次性或任何重要的一次性操作和維護。所以我計算出它接近 50% 的非 GAAP 毛利率。我只是想知道第一季度的情況如何？我想它不會那麼高，也許你可以談談一些看跌期權並在那裡接受。

Sure. So I just want to make sure I understand the question. We were flexibly curtailing in the fourth quarter as power prices dictated it. And we definitely saw an expansion in gross margin, particularly in December as power prices rose and our cost of energy was moving towards our favor. And so that was a key piece. Every line item, the cost started to trend down fuel costs, O&M -- I mean, O&M was a step function improvement in the fourth quarter over the third quarter. Part of that is a function of outages in the third quarter. And part of that is a function of improved fixed cost amortization into the fourth quarter. And so I guess the good thing is those trends continue to be a tailwind into the first quarter, in terms of the absolute level of those costs. Power prices came off, obviously. We're a price-taker.

當然。所以我只想確保我理解這個問題。我們在第四季度根據電價的要求靈活削減。而且我們確實看到了毛利率的增長，特別是在 12 月，因為電價上漲，我們的能源成本正在向我們有利的方向發展。所以這是一個關鍵部分。每個項目，成本開始下降，燃料成本，O&M——我的意思是，O&M 是第四季度比第三季度的階躍功能改進。部分原因是第三季度的停電。部分原因是第四季度固定成本攤銷得到改善。因此，我認為，就這些成本的絕對水平而言，這些趨勢在第一季度繼續成為順風。很明顯，電價下降了。我們是價格接受者。

And so gross margins obviously compressed into the first quarter with power, but a pretty material offset has been the expansion of hash price and Bitcoin price as we moved into 2023. We're not going to give first quarter guidance today on the call, but we're glad that the business model has the flexibility to -- if it doesn't make sense to sell power to convert it to Bitcoin. And we're glad we have the flexibility to import electricity instead of make it, which gives us a pretty good buffer with our gross margins, and that's going to be pretty constructive, we think, especially relative to peers as we go through 2023.

因此，第一季度的毛利率明顯受到影響，但隨著我們進入 2023 年，哈希價格和比特幣價格的上漲是一個相當重要的抵消。我們今天不打算在電話會議上給出第一季度的指導，但我們很高興商業模式具有靈活性——如果出售電力以將其轉換為比特幣沒有意義的話。我們很高興我們可以靈活地進口電力而不是製造電力，這為我們的毛利率提供了一個很好的緩衝，我們認為這將是非常有建設性的，尤其是在我們經歷 2023 年時相對於同行而言。

Okay. That's helpful color. Sort of a related question. I like the way as you think about the trade-off between mining and selling power. I think you were giving some converted metrics, like what kind of Bitcoin price we're looking at in terms of where that line is? I don't know if I missed it this quarter, but can you talk about -- given the extreme volatility, I think we've seen in power prices, like where is the Bitcoin equivalent today? And what does it look like on the forward curve?

好的。這是有用的顏色。有點相關的問題。我喜歡你考慮採礦和銷售能力之間權衡的方式。我想你給出了一些轉換後的指標，比如我們在看這條線在哪裡的比特幣價格是多少？我不知道這個季度我是否錯過了它，但你能談談——鑑於極度波動，我認為我們已經在電價中看到了，比如今天的比特幣等價物在哪裡？它在遠期曲線上是什麼樣子的？

Yes. So -- go ahead, Greg.

是的。所以——繼續吧，格雷格。

I think just -- I know everyone sort of speaks in Bitcoin (inaudible) this call. So to convert Bitcoin to power, an efficient machine will make more than $100 a megawatt hour equivalent. And so obviously, it takes pretty high power pricing to power more than $100 a megawatt to want to divert power back to the grid. At the same time, our cost of power, as we've disclosed, is now well below $50 a megawatt hour. So even when we're running the plants, we can make a healthy margin on those efficient machines. The benefit we see today is that if you look at like PJM pricing like right now, as I'm speaking, it's below $20 a megawatt hour.

我想只是——我知道每個人都在用比特幣（聽不清）說話。因此，要將比特幣轉化為電力，一台高效的機器每兆瓦時的收益將超過 100 美元。很明顯，要想將電力轉移回電網，每兆瓦 100 美元以上的電力需要相當高的電價。與此同時，正如我們所披露的那樣，我們的電力成本現在遠低於每兆瓦時 50 美元。因此，即使我們在運行工廠，我們也可以在這些高效機器上獲得可觀的利潤。我們今天看到的好處是，如果你像現在這樣看 PJM 定價，正如我所說，它低於每兆瓦時 20 美元。

So we think that's a cost advantage that few other miners would have. So as we've talked about in cases like now, we have -- we're focused now on making power, but on buying it at that cheap price in the grid and converting it to Bitcoin. So -- and prices -- when prices are super high, or I think above $100 a megawatt, expect us to sell to the grid. When power prices are low, expect us to buy. And then there's obviously the cases in between. Ironically, a little bit, one of the impacts that we see over the medium- and definitely long-term is the impact of renewable energy installations into PJM. Our grid is having the effect of increasing pricing during some periods and decreasing in others. So it's like we're creating a grid that is a little bit less stable because we're taking out sort of what you'd call baseload fossil fuel plants and replacing them with intermittent solar and wind assets.

所以我們認為這是其他礦工很少有的成本優勢。因此，正如我們在像現在這樣的情況下談到的，我們現在專注於發電，但以電網中的低價購買電力並將其轉換為比特幣。所以——還有價格——當價格超高，或者我認為超過每兆瓦 100 美元時，我們會向電網出售。當電價低時，期待我們購買。然後顯然有介於兩者之間的情況。具有諷刺意味的是，我們看到的中長期影響之一是可再生能源裝置對 PJM 的影響。我們的網格具有在某些時期提高定價而在其他時期降低定價的效果。所以這就像我們正在創建一個不太穩定的電網，因為我們正在淘汰一些你稱之為基本負荷的化石燃料發電廠，並用間歇性的太陽能和風能資產取而代之。

So when power is cheap, it can even go -- it can go negative. And so we're in a great position to take advantage of what is quickly becoming sort of the new reality in the power market. And hopefully, we'll have others agree with us that this is a really valuable option. Long way to answer this question, but there you go.

所以當電力便宜時，它甚至可以——它可以變為負值。因此，我們處於有利地位，可以利用電力市場中正在迅速成為新現實的事物。希望我們會讓其他人同意我們的看法，這是一個非常有價值的選擇。回答這個問題還有很長的路要走，但是你去吧。

That's great color, Greg. Maybe I could squeeze in one more. Just -- I guess I'm surprised and pleased to see the progress with (inaudible) MinerVa, and how these -- you've almost gotten all the value out of that contract. You mentioned that they are performing largely in line. Is there a significant difference been the rest of your fleet and those machines in terms of efficiency and uptime? Or is it actually pretty close?

那顏色真好，格雷格。也許我可以再擠一個。只是 - 我想我很驚訝和高興地看到（聽不清）MinerVa 的進展，以及這些 - 你幾乎從該合同中獲得了所有價值。你提到他們的表現基本上是一致的。在效率和正常運行時間方面，您車隊的其餘部分和那些機器是否存在顯著差異？或者它實際上非常接近？

They still lag a little bit. So I think if you think about the MinerVa deliveries. The first batch they got was really the disastrous batch and that the uptime with those early machines was low. We had problems with the power supply units that they sent. And I think if you were to grade MinerVa on the later deliveries, their performance is more in line with what we would expect it from a sort of more seasoned manufacturer and also, I think, credit to our own engineering team, we have sorted out what the fixes are for the machines and can now get them to be a little bit higher. So I think overall, the performance, we'd say is pretty close to what was originally expected. I would say, that are in line with those expectations. But I think it took a little more work to get there on the progress.

他們仍然落後了一點。所以我想如果你考慮一下 MinerVa 的交付。他們得到的第一批確實是災難性的一批，那些早期機器的正常運行時間很短。我們在他們發送的電源裝置方面遇到了問題。而且我認為，如果你要對 MinerVa 以後的交付進行評分，他們的表現更符合我們對經驗豐富的製造商的期望，而且我認為，這要歸功於我們自己的工程團隊，我們已經整理好了機器的修復是什麼，現在可以讓它們更高一點。所以我認為總的來說，我們所說的性能非常接近最初的預期。我會說，這符合那些期望。但我認為要取得進展還需要做更多的工作。

(Operator Instructions) And our next question comes from Lucas Pipes from B. Riley.

（操作員說明）我們的下一個問題來自 B. Riley 的 Lucas Pipes。

This is (inaudible) calling in for Lucas. Appreciate all the color so far. I think most of my questions have been answered. But you noted building the fleet through purchases of distressed rigs, and I was just hoping to get some color on kind of where you see pricing today? Have you seen prices tick up with the recent BTC recovery? Or is kind of the oversupply holding prices at the lower levels?

這是（聽不清）呼叫 Lucas。欣賞到目前為止所有的顏色。我想我的大部分問題都得到了回答。但是你注意到通過購買不良鑽井平台來建立艦隊，我只是希望對你今天看到的定價有一些了解？您是否看到價格隨著最近的 BTC 復甦而上漲？或者是某種供過於求的價格保持在較低水平？

We haven't seen prices return to anywhere near their prior levels. We would just describe them as the market is still oversupplied with miners. And I would say pricing hasn't fallen further. But I would say it has stabilized at the lower levels. But I think it's -- those that have the means to pay for miners, it's still (inaudible).

我們還沒有看到價格回到之前水平附近的任何地方。我們只是將它們描述為市場仍然供過於求礦工。我會說價格沒有進一步下降。但我會說它已經穩定在較低水平。但我認為它是 - 那些有能力支付礦工費用的人，它仍然是（聽不清）。

Great, great, Greg. That's really helpful. And maybe just one follow-up on that. Would you be looking at a similar miner that you have in the fleet today, call it, S19j Pro, or would you be looking for something more like a S19 XP where you might realize some more power efficiency?

太好了，太好了，格雷格。這真的很有幫助。也許只是一個後續行動。您是否正在尋找與您今天的艦隊中類似的礦工，稱之為 S19j Pro，或者您是否正在尋找更像 S19 XP 的東西，您可能會實現更高的能效？

I think the XP hasn't been an interesting to us because they're still expensive on a petahash basis relative to what we think the value is versus some of the other (inaudible) more efficient machines. I think what we're really focused on is -- and you should be, too, is just if you understand the leverage in our model, getting to 4 exahash is important to us. We can dramatically increase cash flow by refilling our data centers. We have all this infrastructure and power plants, all the infrastructure and we fully built our data centers. And so we're now carrying (inaudible) cost that reflects the ability to house for exahash data centers of data center miners, and we're only at 2.6 exahash today. And so it's just the incentives and the accretion by filling data centers is so strong, they were mostly focused on just get it filled.

我認為 XP 對我們來說並不有趣，因為相對於我們認為的價值與其他一些（聽不清）更高效的機器相比，它們在 petahash 的基礎上仍然很昂貴。我認為我們真正關注的是——你也應該關注，如果你了解我們模型中的槓桿作用，達到 4 exahash 對我們來說很重要。我們可以通過重新填充我們的數據中心來顯著增加現金流。我們擁有所有這些基礎設施和發電廠，所有的基礎設施，我們完全建造了我們的數據中心。因此，我們現在承擔的（聽不清）成本反映了為數據中心礦工的 exahash 數據中心提供住房的能力，而我們今天只有 2.6 exahash。因此，這只是激勵措施，填充數據中心的增長非常強勁，他們主要專注於填充數據中心。

And then the secondary question is, can we get it filled with as efficient a miner if possible, and we think we will be able to do that. So I think not quite XPs, but close as would be the answer of what we're looking at right now.

然後第二個問題是，如果可能的話，我們能否讓它充滿高效的礦工，我們認為我們能夠做到這一點。所以我認為不完全是 XP，但接近於我們現在正在尋找的答案。

And our next question comes from Kevin Dede from H.C. Wainwright.

我們的下一個問題來自 H.C. 的 Kevin Dede。溫賴特。

Greg and Matt, you have actually done a great job sort of laying out the power profile and the opportunities that you have in different scenarios. I guess what I'm wondering is when you look back over the past, say, '21, '22 operating time frames, how often have you seen those power prices dip below that sort of $50 -- $45 to $50 per megawatt threshold that sort of suggests your opportunity to buy power versus mine? And then how would you suggest we look at that going forward, given sort of the downturn in the power curve, and then how do you evaluate that time it takes to wind the plant down and then spin it back up again?

格雷格和馬特，你們實際上做了很好的工作，展示了你們在不同情況下的權力概況和機會。我想我想知道的是，當你回顧過去，比如說，21 年、22 年的運營時間框架時，你有多少次看到這些電價跌破 50 美元——每兆瓦 45 到 50 美元的門檻有點暗示你有機會購買權力而不是我的？然後，考慮到功率曲線的下滑，您建議我們如何看待未來的發展，然後您如何評估關閉工廠然後再次啟動所需的時間？

Sure. So I would just set the table by saying that we're price-takers in the power markets, and that comes with a fair amount of volatility. And so there are always going to be opportunities like there were last summer, like there were over the course of the winter to capture that pricing convexity that upside. And that's why you invested a plant so that when you want to capture that and deliver power to the grid and reliability of the grid, you can do that reliably. And when you think about the forward curve, (inaudible) forward curve is between $40 and $45 in our pricing notes within PJM over the course of the next 12 months. And so that means embedded in that are going to be peak hours in July and August. And December, January and February of the winter sort of end of '23 and '24. You're going to have times where you're selling as much power to grid as possible. April, May and June, September, October, November, those are the shorter months, where seasonally demand collapses relative to the summer and winter (inaudible).

當然。所以我只想說我們是電力市場的價格接受者，並且伴隨著相當大的波動性。因此，總會有像去年夏天那樣的機會，就像在整個冬天一樣，抓住定價凸性的優勢。這就是為什麼你投資了一個工廠，這樣當你想要捕獲它並將電力輸送到電網和電網的可靠性時，你可以可靠地做到這一點。當你考慮遠期曲線時，在接下來的 12 個月內，我們在 PJM 的定價說明中（聽不清）遠期曲線在 40 美元到 45 美元之間。因此，這意味著嵌入其中的將是 7 月和 8 月的高峰時段。 23 年和 24 年冬季的 12 月、1 月和 2 月結束。有時您會向電網出售盡可能多的電力。 4 月、5 月和 6 月、9 月、10 月、11 月，這些是較短的月份，與夏季和冬季相比，季節性需求崩潰（聽不清）。

So we're at the very beginning of what looks to be an incredibly loose power market in April, May and June. And so we expect to be able to import or purchase power at a very low price. The forward power curve is currently, I think, high 20s, low 30s as we move into the shorter months. The last 1.5 weeks, we've been capturing price that's half that for a big chunk of each day. And so we actually think that we're optimistic about the ability to import power and lower our variable cost, lower our overall cost of power over the next 3 months and (inaudible). But we still want to be prepared and able to deliver power to the grid when the power is called for via price during those peak seasonal periods. And so for us, we're in the energy arbitrage business. We're -- we want to be able to have the lowest possible cost, and we have the ability to have 2 different revenue sources and optimize, and that will continue to be the case.

因此，在 4 月、5 月和 6 月，我們正處於看似極其寬鬆的電力市場的開端。因此，我們希望能夠以非常低的價格進口或購買電力。我認為，隨著我們進入更短的月份，目前的正向功率曲線處於 20s 的高位，30s 的低位。在過去的 1.5 周里，我們每天大部分時間都在捕獲價格的一半。所以我們實際上認為我們對進口電力和降低可變成本的能力持樂觀態度，在未來 3 個月內降低我們的總體電力成本和（聽不清）。但我們仍然希望做好準備，並能夠在高峰季節期間通過價格要求電力時向電網輸送電力。所以對我們來說，我們從事能源套利業務。我們 - 我們希望能夠擁有盡可能低的成本，並且我們有能力擁有 2 個不同的收入來源並進行優化，並且這種情況將繼續如此。

Yes. I think just one thing to add. When the plants are running, because power prices justify it, we have the ability to very quickly, literally within a few seconds, divert power to the grid by shutting down the data centers. So that is -- I think it's a more lengthy process to go from (inaudible) power plants to turn them on. But once the plants are on, we can easily and quickly divert that power to the grid within seconds, which we've applied for and received our designations from the grid operator, demonstrating that we have the ability to do that in seconds, which is a very stabilizing sort of tool for the grid to have access to that power. So I think -- you don't think about it as just a binary option, it's a multiway option, on power, both high power pricing gives us a great opportunity, low power pricing is a great opportunity. And then because we can toggle that data center on and off, we can take advantage in between as well.

是的。我認為只有一件事要補充。當電廠運行時，由於電價合理，我們有能力非常迅速地，實際上在幾秒鐘內，通過關閉數據中心將電力轉移到電網。那就是——我認為從（聽不清）發電廠到啟動它們是一個更漫長的過程。但是一旦電廠啟動，我們就可以在幾秒鐘內輕鬆快速地將電力轉移到電網，我們已經申請並收到了電網運營商的指定，證明我們有能力在幾秒鐘內完成這項工作，這是一種非常穩定的工具，可以讓電網獲得這種力量。所以我認為——你不要把它當作一個二元期權，它是一個多向期權，在權力方面，高權力定價給了我們一個很好的機會，低權力定價是一個很好的機會。然後因為我們可以打開和關閉該數據中心，所以我們也可以利用兩者之間的優勢。

It's happening like looking backward, the grid on a go-forward basis isn't the same grid that we saw years ago. The trillions of dollars of infrastructure bill spending is making it into our national power grid. And it's causing for higher power pricing on one end at certain time frames, and lower power pricing at the other end. So in a way, our plants are perfectly situated for that in the environment that we are entering given the modifications in power infrastructure that we have. The solution for the grid would be to install like industrial-scale batteries, which is really very polluting and it's not really a great solution. Or you can do things like demand response for big data centers like ours, which is what we think is going to happen more and more. But go ahead, sorry, I interrupted you.

它的發生就像向後看，前進的網格與我們多年前看到的網格不同。數万億美元的基礎設施支出正在進入我們的國家電網。這導致在某些時間範圍內，一端的電價更高，而另一端的電價更低。因此，在某種程度上，考慮到我們擁有的電力基礎設施的修改，我們的工廠非常適合我們正在進入的環境。電網的解決方案是安裝工業規模的電池，這確實非常污染，並不是一個很好的解決方案。或者你可以為像我們這樣的大數據中心做需求響應之類的事情，我們認為這會越來越多地發生。但是請繼續，對不起，我打擾了你。

No, no, no. I was sort of looking at it from an operating perspective as well, right? I understand that that's a lot of heavy equipment to turn on and off when you're burning coal and creating steam and running the turbine. So I guess what I was wondering is how you factor that in, right? So Matt's alluded to a power curve that looks really beneficial for buying power. So my takeaway is, hey, shut the power plants down, right? If you're not going to need them until summer peak months, right? Do you just go cold?

不不不。我也是從運營的角度來看的，對吧？我知道當你燒煤、產生蒸汽和運行渦輪機時，需要打開和關閉很多重型設備。所以我想我想知道的是你是如何考慮到這一點的，對吧？所以馬特提到了一條看起來對購買力真正有益的權力曲線。所以我的結論是，嘿，關閉發電廠，對吧？如果您在夏季高峰期之前不需要它們，對嗎？你只是感冒了嗎？

Yes, I think that's what you can expect. We may end up running -- it's not -- it's almost that simple. But because we have something called demand charges, and we have the need to sell more power to the grid and we buy from it across 2 plants. There are nuances to that answer. But the generality is, yes, if over the next period of time, we're expecting the power prices to be in the 20s, it makes sense to shut them down and to buy power. With the caveat being, hey, there might be situations where we need to make power to "net out" and deliver more power that grid will be consuming. And that would -- that could end up saving us more on a net basis than just buying power in that way, which is as a generator, it's unique to us. I think a lot of Bitcoin miners are under PPAs that don't have this kind of flexibility.

是的，我認為這就是您所期望的。我們可能最終會運行——它不是——它幾乎就是這麼簡單。但是因為我們有一種叫做需求費用的東西，我們需要向電網出售更多的電力，所以我們從 2 個工廠購買電力。這個答案有細微差別。但總的來說，是的，如果在接下來的一段時間內，我們預計電價將在 20 美元左右，那麼關閉它們併購買電力是有意義的。需要注意的是，嘿，在某些情況下，我們可能需要發電以“淨出”並提供電網將消耗的更多電力。那將 - 這最終可能會在淨基礎上為我們節省更多，而不僅僅是以這種方式購買電力，這是作為發電機，它對我們來說是獨一無二的。我認為很多比特幣礦工都在沒有這種靈活性的 PPA 下。

And they probably aren't as transparent as we are in terms of what the net power costs are given that our cost, we can describe as an all-in basis, it includes transmission, includes taxes, includes (inaudible) that others might not be disclosing. So I think if you were to study us over a period of time, I think you would determine that we have to have among the lowest cost of power than any miner given our asset base.

就淨電力成本而言，他們可能不像我們那樣透明，因為我們的成本，我們可以描述為一個總成本，它包括傳輸，包括稅收，包括（聽不清）其他人可能不會披露。所以我認為，如果你在一段時間內研究我們，我想你會確定我們必須擁有最低的電力成本，而不是給定我們的資產基礎的任何礦工。

Okay. Fair enough. And you've alluded to having maybe 14,000 to 15,000 plugs available. I'm wondering how you might characterize foundry's appetite and whether or not we might expect them to go from the 4,500 miners you said they've deployed with you to using more of those plugs or how -- I guess, how should we think about your time line to purchase given your 4 exahash target?

好的。很公平。你提到可能有 14,000 到 15,000 個插頭可用。我想知道您如何描述鑄造廠的胃口，以及我們是否期望他們從您所說的與您一起部署的 4,500 名礦工轉變為使用更多這些插頭，或者如何 - 我想，我們應該如何考慮鑑於您的 4 exahash 目標，您的購買時間表？

Yes. So I think the guidance that we're giving is toward the end of the year, that we'll have the data center full. But it was certainly -- I don't want to make any comments on any other miner on whether they're going to host with us, expand with us or not, (inaudible) they should answer their own questions as what they want to do. We -- it's publicly known that these slots are available. And we intend to fill them. If we can fill them, there are a variety of ways to do that. One is just to go buy the miners. A second would be to do a hosting deal like we've done with foundry. A third could be a blended deal where you could say, do a miner for equity exchange.

是的。所以我認為我們給出的指導是在年底前，我們將擁有完整的數據中心。但可以肯定的是——我不想對任何其他礦工就他們是否要與我們一起託管、是否與我們一起擴展發表任何評論，（聽不清）他們應該按照自己的意願回答自己的問題做。我們 - 眾所周知，這些插槽可用。我們打算填補它們。如果我們可以填充它們，有多種方法可以做到這一點。一種是去購買礦機。第二個是像我們與鑄造廠所做的那樣進行託管交易。第三個可能是混合交易，你可以說，做一個礦工進行股權交換。

And probably a variety that I'm not even mentioning here (inaudible), but I think it's a -- to have the slot empty in conjunction, there's a slot being empty with our low cost of power, expect them to be filled by the end of the year. That's what we aspire to do.

可能是我在這裡甚至沒有提到的一個品種（聽不清），但我認為這是一個 - 結合空槽，我們的低電力成本有一個空槽，期望它們被填充年底。這就是我們渴望做的。

Fair enough. Matt mentioned an additional 25 megawatts. Is that at Panther, complete inventory ready to power or supply another 25 megawatts for mining?

很公平。馬特提到了額外的 25 兆瓦。在 Panther，完整的庫存是否準備好為另外 25 兆瓦的挖礦供電或供電？

Yes. So I think what we're referencing there is we don't have room for that 25 megawatts at our existing data centers. So we're looking at a variety of options as to where to put those megawatts. So to fully fund the part is we have the transformers, the containers, the switchgear, sort of -- it's a -- it would be a small amount of CapEx to be able to install that data center given we have the CapEx-heavy part of the cost already in our possession, unencumbered. But we are not ready yet to state where that 25 megawatts will come from.

是的。所以我認為我們所指的是我們現有的數據中心沒有足夠的空間容納 25 兆瓦的電力。因此，我們正在考慮將這些兆瓦放在哪裡的各種選擇。因此，要為該部分提供全部資金，我們擁有變壓器、容器、開關設備，有點——它是——鑑於我們擁有資本支出大的部分，能夠安裝該數據中心將需要少量資本支出我們已經擁有的費用，沒有負擔。但我們還沒有準備好說明這 25 兆瓦的電力來自哪裡。

Fair enough. I'm going to press you a little bit more on that, Greg. Your next 12 months forecast look favorable, right, from an adjusted EBITDA perspective. It seems to me that given you've worked really hard to delever, how would you consider adding a third power plant, which I seem to remember was part of Stronghold's original plan, I think, going back to '21?

很公平。格雷格，我會就此向你施壓。從調整後的 EBITDA 角度來看，您對未來 12 個月的預測看起來不錯。在我看來，鑑於你已經非常努力地去槓桿化，你會如何考慮增加第三個發電廠，我記得這是 Stronghold 最初計劃的一部分，我想，回到 21 年？

No. Obviously, right now, we have no interest in relevering the balance sheet. So I do not put that in any model. We're going to stay...

不。顯然，現在我們沒有興趣重新調整資產負債表。所以我不會把它放在任何模型中。我們要留下來...

Yes, I wasn't going to go there. I just wanted to know how you thought about it.

是的，我不打算去那裡。我只是想知道你是怎麼想的。

Yes. And I think what you -- I think you would expect is, hey, there are a number of Bitcoin mining operations that got halfway done that maybe entered into or got close to entering into power purchase agreements, even in our own neighborhood, which is probably what we want to stay. So expect us to have that 25 megawatts at a site that we don't own, where we buy power on maybe a subcontracted basis from either another miner or from a power producer. It's not -- it's really a -- it would be significant for us to go from 4 exahash to 5, and so we're focused on that. But we're not going to buy another power plant to do it. We think there are opportunities in our neighborhood to plug that infrastructure in and just buy the power. It will probably cost us more than if we were to make it ourselves owning the plant, but that's not going to happen this year.

是的。而且我認為你 - 我認為你會期望的是，嘿，有許多比特幣挖礦業務已經完成一半，可能已經進入或接近進入電力購買協議，即使在我們自己的社區也是如此可能是我們想要留下的。因此，期望我們在一個我們不擁有的站點擁有 25 兆瓦的電力，在那裡我們可能在分包的基礎上從另一個礦工或電力生產商那裡購買電力。這不是——它真的是——從 4 exahash 到 5 對我們來說意義重大，所以我們專注於此。但我們不會為此購買另一座發電廠。我們認為我們附近有機會插入該基礎設施併購買電力。與我們自己擁有工廠相比，這可能會花費我們更多的錢，但今年不會發生這種情況。

(Operator Instructions) At this time, this concludes our question-and-answer session. I'd now like to turn the call back over to Mr. Beard for closing remarks.

（操作員說明）此時，我們的問答環節到此結束。我現在想把電話轉回給 Beard 先生，請他作結束語。

Great. So thank you, investors. Thank you, analysts, for your interest, and we've had a -- 2022 was an extremely painful year for the company. We set ourselves up to survive through all of these restructurings we did with our lenders, we're thankful to them as well, in addition, just -- one of our vendors. So we are -- I'm happy to say that we are through the woods here and have a lot of upside to our model. There's a lot of accretion that we can have with the growth activities that we're working on. And we look forward to posting the market on our progress. Also, thank you to our teams at the power plants, at the data centers, the finance team. Thank you to my partner, Bill. So we're happy that we'll have (inaudible), and we are positioned to take advantage of it. So thank you, everyone. Bye-bye.

偉大的。所以，謝謝你，投資者。分析師們，謝謝你們的關注，我們經歷了——2022 年對公司來說是極其痛苦的一年。通過我們與貸方進行的所有這些重組，我們讓自己得以生存，我們也感謝他們，此外，我們的供應商之一。所以我們 - 我很高興地說我們已經穿過樹林，我們的模型有很多好處。我們正在進行的增長活動可以帶來很多增長。我們期待著向市場公佈我們的進展。另外，感謝我們在發電廠、數據中心和財務團隊的團隊。感謝我的搭檔比爾。所以我們很高興我們將擁有（聽不清），並且我們準備好利用它。所以謝謝大家。再見。

Thank you for joining us today for Stronghold's earnings call. You may now disconnect.

感謝您今天加入我們參加 Stronghold 的財報電話會議。您現在可以斷開連接。