The XCAD launch in Times Square

• XCAD Network is a creator token platform that let YouTube viewers earn tokens for watching.
• Its first flagship live event streamed from Times Square, New York, on 16 June 2022.
• Mid stream, XCAD’s plugin and creators’ faces went up on the Times Square billboards.
• KSI and Joe Weller featured, alongside Lulu99 and Millie T.
• New Waves, Who Dis?, the company Tom co-founded, produced the XCAD Network videos in his work: 6 videos and 312,952 views.
• Tom describes the launch as taking over Times Square.

The starting point

XCAD let creators issue fan tokens, and viewers earned them by watching through a browser plugin. Oliver Bell is its chief executive and co-founder. KSI and MrBeast invested in its 2021 funding round. On 14 June 2022 XCAD announced an exclusive New York event for 16 June at 19:00 EDT. The release promised a livestream from Times Square and “a lot of very exciting elements”. Bell called it “the most exciting day in XCAD’s history so far”.

What Tom did

Tom co-founded New Waves, Who Dis? with Sam Hilton, and ran it from June 2021 to November 2023. The company worked across creative and format development, production and delivery, commercial, and talent management. Tom files all 6 XCAD videos as made for New Waves, Who Dis? Each one is filed under Produced, Format and strategy, and Talent supplied. His exact role on the New York night is still to confirm. See Gaps.

How it worked: formats, team, partners, decisions

The stream. The broadcast ran 59 minutes 40 seconds on XCAD Network’s YouTube channel. XCAD billed it as its “first flagship LIVE event, featuring KSI, Joe Weller, Layah and more!”. Layah presented it live from Times Square. A $10,000 giveaway asked viewers to screenshot the stream and post it with #XCAD.

The running order. The chapters run from Understanding XCAD through partnerships, creator announcements and a plugin demonstration to a founders’ segment. KSI appears early to back the product. The stream named creators joining, among them Renato Garcia and Niko Omilana. Lulu99, a Colombian YouTuber with more than 11 million subscribers, made the first live creator announcement. Millie T closed it.

The billboard moment. At 32 minutes the hosts cut to the billboards. Oliver Bell unveiled the plugin, set to launch on 29 June. Joe Weller, on camera in the square: “the fact that we’re here seeing youtubers faces on the billboards it’s unbelievable”. He announced a fan token for his podcast, Wafflin’.

The partners. Max Kantelia appeared as an XCAD co-founder and founder of Silica and Metapolis. Chapters cover a Metapolis partnership, a Zilliqa integration and DAO Maker news.

After New York. The channel ran on with formats: YouTuber Buy or Sell, a house tour, a top 10 and The Future of YouTube. The creators included Millie T, Ben Morris, Bambino Becky and JMX. The last video went out on 28 February 2023.

The results

• One live event from Times Square, 16 June 2022, with the plugin reveal on the billboards.
• 40,214 views on the stream on YouTube, read 25 October 2026. Tom’s videos hold 40,179.
• 6 XCAD videos in Tom’s work with 312,952 views between them.
• The most watched, The Future of YouTube, holds 114,272.
• XCAD said over 70 YouTubers were launching fan tokens.
• Its release claimed those creators had over 300 million subscribers combined.
• Tom describes the launch as taking over Times Square.

What it proves

A launch is a studio day. One night in New York gave XCAD an hour of broadcast, a billboard moment and a run of creator announcements. The formats that followed kept the channel going for eight months. See The event as a studio content day.

Coverage and links

• Newsfile Corp., via Yahoo Finance, 14 June 2022. XCAD, the Leading Watch-to-Earn Token, Launches Flagship Event in New York - June 16. Marked as a paid press release.
• The same release ran on Nasdaq.com. Found in search and not opened.
• XCAD Network on YouTube, 16 June 2022. XCAD Live in New York ft KSI, Joe Weller & More.
• No independent press coverage of the event was found.