CS2 skins market begins to rebound after $615 million dip caused by Valve update

The CS2 skins market cap is slowly beginning to recover after dipping $615 million over the past week.

The large drop began on July 16th, just a day after the market cap hit an all-time high of nearly $5.13 billion, according to skins economy analyst Pricempire on X. This dip is primarily attributed to the introduction of the "trade protection" feature. Pricempire notes that there is "less liquidity" in the market with more skins marked by trade protection.

This feature, which was implemented in the July 15th update as a method of protecting a user's items in case their account is compromised, allows an account holder to reverse all item trades done within the previous seven days. The change to the trading system has raised concerns that unscrupulous traders could accept cash or other compensation for a skin, trade it to a third-party, and then recall the skin via Valve's new protections. As Valve actively discourages and plays no role in these types of trades, an increased potential for "rugpull" type scams could potentially have shook confidence in the overall market

Beginning July 16th, the CS2 skins market cap dipped by millions each day, with the dip totaling $615 million by July 21st. But shortly after the market began to recover, improving by $73 million on July 23rd and $112.5 million on July 24th.

While the initial update caused some panic in the market, it appears to be stabilizing. Likely people are realizing that third-party sellers wouldn't risk a "rugpull" as it would likely shatter their reputation and land them on "no trade" lists. For now, it seems that trading in CS2 is not dead yet.