Overview
- Valve’s update extends Trade Up Contracts to exchange five Covert-quality items, including StatTrak variants, for a knife or gloves from one of the input items’ collections.
- High-end knives and gloves plunged in price—reports cite drops up to roughly 70%—while lower-value Covert skins spiked as traders bought crafting materials.
- Market trackers logged a rapid $1.7–$2 billion decline within 24 hours, with estimates diverging and total value later hovering around roughly $3–$4.3 billion after initial troughs.
- Newly crafted knives and gloves carry a short trading hold of about a week, delaying the full supply impact and leaving prices highly volatile.
- Community reaction ranged from panic selling to calls for caution, unverified social media claims circulated, and analysts suggested Valve could be steering activity back to Steam’s fee-based marketplace.