CS2 Skin Update Shocks Collectors: $1 Billion Vanishes from Market Cap – What You Need to Know!

Counter-Strike 2 recently rolled out a big update that rocked its skin trading scene. The market cap plummeted from about $6 billion to under $5 billion after changes in how players can get knives and gloves.

This update introduced the Trade Up Contract system. Now, players can trade five Covert-quality items for a knife or gloves, which wasn’t an option before. They can exchange five StatTrak Covert items for a StatTrak knife or regular Covert items for a standard knife or gloves from certain collections.

Previously, players could only get knives and gloves as rare drops from cases or through the Steam Community Market. These items often fetched thousands of dollars. With the new trade-up feature, even lower-value Covert skins can become high-end cosmetics, increasing supply and pushing prices down.

The reaction from the player community has been intense. Many voiced their frustration. One streamer, FURIOUSSS, tweeted, “You guys know that people are probably going to harm themselves because of this, yet you pushed it out without hesitation, crazy.”

Former YouTube executive Ryan Wyatt, known as Fwiz, also criticized the update. He noted, “Counter-Strike rugged its entire community. They let you bundle items to trade up, leading players to use ~$5 items to obtain what used to be $1000+ knives.”

However, some analysts believe the impact might not be as drastic. Marketplace CSFloat reported that even if every eligible Covert skin were traded, the number of knives and gloves would only double. Currently, there are about 20 million Covert skins. In a worst-case scenario, if all 29 million Covert skins were traded, the total supply of knives and gloves could go from 5.5 to 11 million.

Streamer fl0m shared a different perspective, arguing that the update was overdue. He stated, “The market manipulation driving prices so high was out of hand. A normal person shouldn’t have to spend so much just to have one nice skin in CS.”

Skin trader zipeL expressed a mixed feeling. He said he was concerned but remained calm, urging others to support each other during this chaotic time.

As of now, the market cap has dipped as low as $4.2 billion. This update represents one of the biggest economic shifts in Counter-Strike’s history, with millions in virtual item value disappearing almost overnight. The future of the market will depend on how many players take advantage of the new trade-up system in the weeks to come.

For more on this topic, you can check the latest market trends on Price Empire.

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