Counter-Strike 2 Skins Market Crashes in $2bn Market Cap Drop After October 23 update
The skin community and the market they rely on is one of the backbones of Counter-Strike 2, but they have been rocked in an update on October 23, which could change the game forever.
The update, which also introduces Retakes as an official gamemode and adds new tradeup functionality, has already had a massive effect on the market.
Image Credit: Valve
CS Market Crashes After New Update
Although the release for the new update was focused on the new Retakes mode, itās what was seen in the official patch notes that has really caught the eye:
Extended functionality of the āTrade Up Contractā to allow exchanging 5 items of Covert quality as follows:
5 StatTrakā¢ Covert items can be exchanged for one StatTrakā¢ Knife from a collection of one of the items provided
5 regular Covert items can be exchanged for one regular Knife item or one regular Gloves item from a collection of one of the items provided
In laymanās terms, this means that CS2 players can now trade five red rarity skins for a gold rarity skin, with the outcome of what you get in that trade being dependent on which five skins they offer in it.Ā
Itās something that has never been able to be done before, and it has already massively changed the Counter-Strike skins market. Within minutes of the update releasing, the price of red skins had skyrocketed, while gold skins had lost a lot of value.
Players are already posting videos of them trading up some of the cheaper red skins that remain in the game and receiving knives that cost thousands in return.
However, whilst this does sound good for some people, the market crash has disappointed many within Counter-Strikeās lively trading community.
Most people in this community consider their inventories to be investments, but one update has caused the value of those investments to decrease massively. Former NA star Austin āCooperā Abadir even suggested that the CS marketĀ had lostĀ a billion dollars in value within five hours of the updateās release, with that number doubling to almost $2 billion at the time of writing according to Pricempire.
I sold everything I had. Every Skin I owned is gone. I’m completely out of the CS2 market, I can’t take it anymore. Aggressive dumping, manipulation, everything is so intense. Skins are over, I am out, I am very glad to meet you, life has dreams, each is wonderful.
ā Spinx (@SpinxCS2) October 23, 2025
With the new knives and gloves, which cannot be traded for another week, itās likely that the market crash hasnāt reached its peak yet.
Skins could continue to decrease in value and might never recover, especially as people speculateĀ that theĀ updateĀ results from Valve looking to move away from lootboxes to comply with new regulations.
