A new Counter-Strike 2 update has left the community in shambles over skin prices and the entirety of Steam's marketplace crashing, as players scramble to sell their skins at high prices to avoid losing money – and others try to make cash.
The update, as detailed by Valve on the shooter's official Steam news page, has "extended functionality of the 'Trade Up Contract' to allow exchanging five items of Covert quality as follows: five StatTrak Covert items can be exchanged for one StatTrak Knife from a collection of one of the items provided, five 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."
For anyone less familiar with the (admittedly already controversial) Counter-Strike 2 market system, Covert items – also known as "reds" – typically aren't worth very much. Knives and gloves, on the other hand, can fetch you thousands. In other words, this update effectively lets players trade "up" for skins that are worth far, far more than the items they already have, and it's downright breaking the marketplace. As one fan says, it's "insane."
If you're wondering why Steam is either super slow, or crashed entirely right now:Valve just updated CSGO to let you trade up reds ($10 skins) into knives ($1000+ skins) and the entire market is crashinginsane lmfaoOctober 23, 2025
In their post, they explain: "If you're wondering why Steam is either super slow, or crashed entirely right now: Valve just updated CSGO to let you trade up reds ($10 skins) into knives ($1000+ skins) and the entire market is crashing." The top comment sees a frustrated player write, "My knife just dropped $1,400 in value in the span of 30 minutes – what the fuck." In another reply, somebody describes the quick profit they've managed to make.
how do I explain this to the IRS pic.twitter.com/Cg7ldLw23UOctober 22, 2025
"I just sold a skin I bought for like three dollars months ago for 35 lmao. I liked the skin, but it would be stupid to miss out on a 10x profit." Another corrects the original poster with a mind-boggling new screenshot of Covert skins' rising worth – worth that has absolutely shot up overnight: "*formerly $10 skins." Elsewhere online, a player jokingly asks, "How do I explain this to the IRS?" What do they mean by "this," though?
"This" is the whopping new £3,329,612.70 worth of their "worthless red skins" – about four and a half million US dollars, according to Google's conversion calculator. Reddit shows a plethora of similarly confused, disappointed, and excited fans, too. "This update has made some collectors very rich," reads one thread. There are memes as well, like this fake Warren Buffett quote: "Freak the fuck out and panic sell everything right now. It's fucking over."
It seems it's a wild time to be a Counter-Strike 2 player, although Valve has yet to address the divisive "Trade Up" update – one that the Steam creator amusingly dubbed a "small" patch – or comment on players' reactions following its arrival.
