The trader posted about the fall – which he told Reuters was more than 10% at the time – on Weibo, China’s equivalent of Twitter. His post went viral, attracting thousands of comments and becoming one of the most searched items on Weibo last week.The trader, who declined to give his name, said such price swings were not unusual in the speculative world of cryptocurrencies and asset-backed tokens.

“But it’s clear sneaker speculators were pulling money out of the market” after the Chinese government and netizens responded angrily to the comment by Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey, he said.Morey quickly deleted his tweet, but the damage was done.Chinese state media started to attack him, the Houston Rockets and the National Basketball Association (NBA), accusing th…