PANDAPALS ROUNDTABLE: 4:30 PM ET

Host: Panda (@PandaPump_) with cohosts Curtis Gore (@curtisgore) and Waldo (@waldoforrealz) · Mon Aug 17, 2026 · 4h 26m · ~20 speakers

TL;DR

• The weekly PandaPals roundtable ran its usual marathon, loosely themed around one prompt for the back half: what was your biggest crypto mistake, and how did you grow from it?
• A "base cat" runner on Base drove the early buzz — Wagby ended up co-hosting its space all night, and Waldo got booted for asking "when marketing / when CMC."
• Panda gave the full PandaPals origin story (a 2023–2025 build of token, staking, and dual male/female NFT collections), and the room cheered a milestone: closing in on the 300th minted panda.
• Long, warm tangents: Joseph on "agents of chaos" and shadow work; a Pavel Durov clip that sparked a focus/algorithm conversation; Steve's cybersecurity primer and an AI-watermarking debate.
• Roundtable confessionals from Rocky, Curtis, A-VOID, Slava, and Brandon — plus Kerry and A-VOID both owning recent community blowups, met with grace and forgiveness.
• Waldo closed with an epic war story of running a Bitcoin-on-Base memecoin to $2.78 / $30M market cap via coordinated swap rallies — then round-tripping his own bag down to $5k.

Highlights

Curtis on the GameStop-era trading freezes [9:08] — Curtis explained that the "pause" wasn't just Robinhood; he saw the same lockups on Webull across GameStop, AMC, and Tupperware, framing it as insiders buying time to cover shorts. He noted he actually made money on all three during the meme frenzy.

Panda's PandaPals origin story [30:59] — Prompted by newcomer Larry, Panda traced his path from the 2017 ICO boom and a private Telegram group to a two-year build (token, two staking audits after a near-scam dev, and a dual male/female NFT collection). The through-line: he wanted "one forever project," not a fifth launch.

Larry's automatic liquidity terminal [39:...] — Larry described a custom tool he had built that spins up liquidity pools automatically based on volume thresholds, with built-in stop losses, so a chart keeps steady volume "even $5 a day" without babysitting. He also dropped the origin tale of buying Doge for $300 and selling for $30k.

The flock-camera saga [49:30] — The comic centerpiece: Panda once presented an audio clip, saw the room flooding him with emotes, and decided he'd "cracked the formula" and was "connecting with my people" — while everyone was frantically signaling they couldn't hear him. It went on for 20+ minutes. Curtis: "I did a whole grocery shopping trail the whole 20 minutes." Nobody left.

Joseph on chaos and shadow work [1:00:42] — After a weekend of communities reshuffling, Joseph distinguished groups that "incubate chaos on purpose" from those that can hold chaos and "let it have a voice for a second before letting it settle," and turned it into a meditation on forgiving what you signed up for and cleaning up others' messes.

Kilo on time, history, and a poem [1:19:...] / [1:45:08] — Kilo reflected on the founding fathers' long carriage rides and penmanship as lost forms of unhurried thinking, then shared a message he'd written a doctor he'd befriended: "A skill becomes useless if not practiced, pointless if not sharpened, dangerous if used incorrectly." Around the same stretch [1:26:15], the room celebrated closing in on the 300th minted panda.

Pavel Durov clip → focus talk [1:35:11] — A played clip of the Telegram founder ("I don't think a phone is a necessary device… I don't want other people or companies telling me what is important today") opened a group riff on algorithms, organization, and Joseph's warning that AI watermarking quietly erodes privacy and IP.

Steve's cybersecurity primer + AI watermarks [1:53:56] / [2:00:22] — Pirate-NFT artist Steve walked through clipboard-swap malware and device botnets, then he, Joseph, and Panda got into the weeds on Anthropic's plan to watermark Claude output — Joseph arguing it's not hidden characters but statistical "red/green token" rhythms, and that the real second-order effect is entrainment and IP claims.

Wagby's all-nighter and Waldo's Trojan panda [2:09:08] / [2:15:12] — Wagby recounted "pulling a Seppy" and co-hosting the base cat space all night while fanning a playful Base-vs-Robinhood "war" ("take your hoods off, helmet stays on"). Waldo described infiltrating the same space as a duck, getting banned for asking about marketing, and his long-game plan to quietly turn base cats into pandas.

The "biggest mistake" roundtable [2:26:41] — A rich stretch: Rocky lost ~$30k in his first year and rebuilt through charting discipline; Curtis's regret was using Bitcoin only as a transaction rail and never holding; A-VOID recounted his first honeypot and the four-year "Dead Punks" build; Slava explained never rugging despite chances at millions. A recurring theme: the real mistake is starting too late — or being too early to market.

Confessionals and the "ask 19 women" bit [3:41:...] / [3:47:05] — Slava's "feeling completely fucked can be liberating" spun into a thought experiment on rejection ("go get 19 no's as fast as possible"), with Lil Southern Mama volunteering to be practice. It flowed into Kerry and A-VOID both openly owning recent blowups in friends' communities, and a genuinely tender exchange on ownership, forgiveness, and therapy.

Waldo's closing epic [4:18:54] — Waldo told the full story of a CTO'd Bitcoin-on-Base memecoin: months of daily VC calls, coordinated "swap rallies" to game the Coinbase trending charts, funding a team to sponsor the San Francisco on-chain summit, and calmly running it to $2.78 / $30M — "I made literal millionaires that night. I didn't make myself a millionaire," having round-tripped his own bag to $5k out of belief in the community.

Topic timeline

Notable quotes

• "I did a whole grocery shopping trail the whole 20 minutes." — Curtis Gore, on the flock-camera silence [50:31]
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  0:38
• "I'm also a duck and I don't really give a fuck." — Waldo [18:51]
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  0:38
• "There's a big difference between groups that incubate chaos on purpose and groups that can just sit with chaos and have it, let it have a voice for a second before letting it settle." — Joseph [1:00:42]
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  0:38
• "A skill becomes useless if not practiced, pointless if not sharpened, dangerous if used incorrectly. A direction leads you to the door, and a smile earns you access." — Kilo S [1:46:33]
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  0:38
• "Money will dry up, but innovation won't, and creativity always wins out." — SLAVA [3:15:04]
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  0:38
• "When somebody hurts you and they feel bad about it, that means they're a good person. Bad people don't feel bad when they hurt you." — Lil Southern Mama [3:53:33]
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  0:38

Who said what

• Panda (@PandaPump_) — Host; kept the marathon moving, told the project's origin story, and returned throughout to his "water the bamboo" patience philosophy.
• Curtis Gore (@curtisgore) — Cohost; Forex/GameStop trading war stories, a collector's mindset toward NFTs, and the steady voice reassuring Kerry.
• Waldo (@waldoforrealz) — Cohost; duck-PFP grind, base cat infiltration bit, and the room's biggest closing story.
• keRRy (@kerrymcook) — Music/book lover (1984, sampling old records), flock-saga foil, and an honest confessional about losing his temper in a friend's community.
• Larry Pink's Pool Party (@LarryPinkPool) — Newest panda; explained his automatic liquidity-pool terminal and a legendary Doge flip.
• Joseph (@TrudoJo) — Resident deep thinker on chaos, shadow work, and AI watermarking's second-order effects.
• Kilo S (@KiloSilo47) — Historical/philosophical reflections and a widely-appreciated poetic message.
• Rocky / Röcky (@Rockchilld3) — Developer/TA; charting discipline after early losses, chart "sixth sense," and euphoria management.
• Bankyo (@Bankyo) — Organization gospel and banter; celebrated his own mainnet launch.
• Wagby (@WAGBi_) — Trencher who CTO'd the base cat space overnight and fanned the friendly Base-vs-Robinhood flames.
• Steve Walson (@Steve_Walson) — Pirate-NFT artist turned cybersecurity guide (clipboard malware, botnets).
• A-VOID (@AVOID_TheArtist) — Dead Punks artist; honeypot and streetwear-slogan confessionals, plus a long-game NFT ethos.
• SLAVA (@LAVAwithanS) — Morality-over-profit, never-rugged ethos, and a riff on breaking your own "glass ceilings."
• Brandon (@notbrvnd0n) — Kittisens founder; a killer-whale rug taught him to diversify and invest in people.
• Lil Southern Mama (@Lilsassmouth) — Grounding warmth; the "ask me 19 times" volunteer and the room's reassurance to Kerry.
• Pengy Peng (@YesImPudgy) — Comic relief via a nonstop PFP carousel.
• Toes (@ToezOGToeken) and Tabika (guest) — Toes' "wiggle wiggle" cameo; Tabika's heartfelt "invest in the person, not the token" exchange with Panda.

Worth a full listen

• [49:30]–[51:16] — The flock-camera saga. The retelling (Panda convinced he was "connecting with his people" while the whole room begged him to fix his audio) is a running community legend and lands far better in the speakers' own delivery than any summary.
• [3:41:00]–[4:08:00] — Confessionals and forgiveness. The "ask 19 women" thought experiment tips into Kerry and A-VOID openly owning community blowups, with Curtis, Slava, and Lil Southern Mama offering unusually generous, human counsel.
• [4:18:54]–end — Waldo's closing epic. A start-to-finish account of coordinating swap rallies, gaming trending charts, and running a coin to $30M — then round-tripping his own stack — that captures both the thrill and the cost of the trenches.