We are also very optimistic about our continued growth in 2024 and beyond as we continue to see increasing efforts to loosen restrictions on cannabis invaded businesses with the advancement of the Safer Banking Act and reclassifying cannabis to a schedule III drug, as more and more cannabis-related businesses advance opportunities to expand their operations and enter new markets, we believe our expertise in streamlining operations and for [Indiscernible] in compliance management will continue to set us apart placing us at the forefront of an even larger market. By consolidating accounts of greater size, our clients can take advantage of optimizing efficiencies and navigating the BSA, which will be continued obstacles even with regulatory changes.
The BSA requires maintaining rigorous compliance standards, which are crucial to uphold. I’d like to now turn the call over to Jim to discuss our financial results for the year ended December 31, 2023. Jim?
James Dennedy : Thanks, Sundie, and good afternoon, everyone. For the fourth quarter of 2023, total revenue increased more than 25% to $4.5 million, compared to $3.6 million in the same period last year. The results for the fourth quarter of 2023 included incremental revenue of $549,000, resulting from a strategic shift that occurred in the fourth quarter of 2023 related to how we apply earned interest to the aggregate average daily balance of our client deposits. This methodology was applied retroactively at the beginning of 2023 with the incremental revenue recognized in the fourth quarter of 2023. For the full year ended December 31, 2023, total revenue increased 85% to $17.6 million, compared to 9.5 million in 2022. As Sundie previously mentioned in her comments, investment income increased by 176% to $5.84 million in 2023 versus the $2.1 million reported in 2022.
Loan interest income increased by 163% to $2.97 million in 2023, versus the $1.13 million reported in the prior year and deposits activity and onboarding income increased by 42% to $8.6 million in 2023 versus $6.1 million reported in 2022. Operating expense in the fourth quarter of 2023 decreased by approximately 17% to $6.2 million, compared to $7.4 million in the comparable prior year period. Lower operating expenses in the fourth quarter were primarily the result of lower compensation-related expenses, as well as lower professional services and consulting-related expenses. This was offset by a $2 million charge for impairment of developed technology taken in the fourth quarter of 2024. For the full year ended December 31, 2023, total operating expense increased to $38.3 million versus $11.7 million in 2022.
The increased operating expense versus 2022 was attributable to goodwill and other impairment charges from the second quarter of 2023 related to the Abaca transaction and impairment charge to develop technology taken in the fourth quarter of 2023 also related to the Abaca transaction. Expenses related to a restructuring of the Abaca transaction consideration completed in the fourth quarter of 2023 and stock-based compensation expense. The company reported $2.5 million of net income in the fourth quarter of 2023 versus a loss of $37 million in the prior year period. The driver of the net income produced in the fourth quarter was attributable to the previously mentioned additional investment income captured in the fourth quarter. For the full year of 2023, the company reported a net loss of $17.3 million versus a net loss of $35 million in 2022.
The net loss reported for the full year was primarily attributable to the impairment of long lived assets and Goodwill, higher compensation expense and Abaca consideration restructuring charges. When adjusting net income for interest, taxes and depreciation and amortization expense and further adjustments to exclude non-cash unusual and/or infrequent costs, we compute an adjusted EBITDA, which management believes provides an accurate measure to evaluate our operating performance. A reconciliation of net income to adjusted EBITDA is provided in the press release and 10-K filed earlier today. Adjusted EBITDA for the year ended December 31, 2023 was $3.6 million versus $1.3 million in 2022. Turning to the balance sheet, as of December 31, 2023, the company reported cash and cash equivalents of $4.9 million, compared to $8.4 million at December 31, 2022.
Cash used in operations for 2023 was $832,000 versus cash provided by operations in 2022 of $1.7 million. While the company reported higher operating expenses in 2023 from being a separate standalone public company versus our 2022 results, the company managed to consistently reduce its core operating expenses throughout 2023, while also significantly growing the business. Turning now to our liquidity, while the company reported $4.9 million of cash as a December 31, 2023, the company reported a net working capital deficit of $135,000. This is a significant improvement over the working capital deficit of $39.3 million reported at the end of 2022. The driver of the current working capital deficit is the current portion of the senior secured note of the partner Colorado Credit Union and the deferred consideration owed to Abacus shareholders due in November of 2024.
We expect to reverse the working capital deficit anticipates reporting positive working capital in the ensuing quarters of 2024. We are pleased with the results for the quarter and the year and the progress we are making across many aspects of the business and initiatives to remain the dominant financial services provider to the legal cannabis industry. With that I will now turn the call back to the operator to open the call for questions.
