The 23rd of October 2025 will go down in the Counter Strike skins histroy books as one of the most devastating updates in CS history. Unlike many updates before, 7 day trade hold and the ability to revert skins within the 7 day trade hold period, this update is the Fat Man of the Counter Strike realm. This update nuked the market causing prices to plummet by more than 50% on most items, but mainly focused on Knives and Gloves.

Valve introduced a feature that allows users to combine 5 covert items, trading them up into a gold (knife or gloves) from any collection of coverts that were used. Before this, gold’s (knives and gloves) were only obtainable through opening cases that were dropped from playing the game. However, this update allows for a second way of obtaining golds which has caused prices to plummet as supply has well exceeded demand for the time being. These trade ups can actually be calculated to give guaranteed outcomes of certain knives and phases of doppler effects. Some doppler phases like Ruby, Emerald and Sapphire were randomly dropped at a reduced rate causing them to be more rare than their parent doppler effects. However, in the little time this update has been out there has been an increased drops of these once ‘rare’ doppler phases.

Many people who dedicate their life to buying and selling skins on the Counter Strike scene have made heavy loss after Valve’s actions with people losing as little as a couple hundred bucks to hundreds and hundreds of thousands. In China, where skin trading and collecting is rife due to external forces on them, there is speculation and rumours that multiple people have taken their own life due to this major update Valve has sprung on their player base. Many people have lost trust in the market and are looking to get out of the skins scene altogether. Skins on the other hand were never created for monetary value and Valve state that they are not to be traded for real life money and that you actually never really own the items in your inventory.

However, in the few days after the event, the skins have settled slightly increasing in price again after the increased panic selling from various users. The only downside is that there should really be a second wave, a second blast, when the 30th hits. This is because people that bought trade banned items can then trade their items up into the golds and sell them on the market place. There should be a significant dump of all golds on the market on the 30th but will it go lower than it once was and will the economy recover? There is only one way to find out…