Starting in 2019, leases are accounted for under ASC Topic 842. The Company made an accounting policy election not to apply the recognition requirements to short-term leases. The Company recognizes the lease payments for short-term leases in the consolidated statements of operations and comprehensive loss on a straight-line basis over the lease term, and variable lease payments in the period in which the obligation for those payments is incurred. Therefore, the Company is not recognizing a lease liability or right-of-use asset for any lease that, at the commencement date, has a lease term of 12 months or less and does not include an option to extend the term or purchase the underlying asset that that the Company is reasonably certain to exercise. The Company’s lease terms may include options to extend or terminate the lease when it is reasonably certain that the Company will exercise that option. The Company has entered into a lease agreement for the Company’s principal executive offices located in New York, New York. The lease does not include any restrictions or covenants that had to be accounted for under the lease guidance.

In June 2020, the company entered into a lease for office space at 22 Cortlandt St, New York, NY consisting of the 16^th floor which began on August 1, 2020. The term for this lease was to expire on July 31, 2021. At lease inception the lease arrangement was deemed to be a short-term lease due to its term not exceeding one year, and as such was accounted for on a straight-line basis until December 2020.

In December 2020, the company modified the lease agreement for office space at 22 Cortlandt St, New York, NY, consisting of the 16^th floor which will begin on August 1, 2021 and extend through July 31, 2022. Due to the extension of term, the lease was no longer deemed to be a short term lease, and thus the guidance per ASC Topic 842 was applied.

Rent expense incurred during the years ended December 31, 2020, 2019 and 2018 was $870,275, $485,548, and $315,301.

The following table summarizes the presentation of operating leases in the Company’s consolidated balance sheet:

	Balance sheet location	As of December 31, 2020
Assets
Right-of-use operating asset	Right-of-use asset - operating lease	$	1,739,475
Liabilities
Current operating lease liabilities	Operating lease liability, current portion		1,220,587
Long-term operating lease liabilities	Operating lease liability, long-term		581,708
Total operating lease liabilities		$	1,802,295

For the year ended December 31, 2020, the Company noted the following lease expense:

Statement of Operations Location

Year Ended

December 31, 2020

Operating lease expense

General and administrative

47,821

Total operating lease expense

47,821

Future minimum lease payments of our operating leases as of December 31, 2020 were as follows:

Years Ending December 31,
2021	$	1,250,000
2022		630,000
2023		—
2024		—
2025		—
Thereafter		—
Total lease payments		1,880,000
Less imputed interest		(77,705	)
Present value of operating lease liabilities	$	1,802,295

As of December 31, 2020, the remaining lease term for our operating lease was 1.6 years with a discount rate of 6.0%. The interest rate implicit in lease contracts is typically not readily determinable and as such, the Company uses its incremental borrowing rate based on the information available at the lease commencement date, which represents an internally developed rate that would be incurred to borrow, on a collateralized basis, over a similar term, an amount equal to the lease payments in a similar economic environment.