Following Valve’s major update in July 2025, which introduced the “Trade Protection” feature, the trading system in CS2 has undergone fundamental changes. Trading is no longer about mass-moving items through bots and storage units — it’s now a limited and controlled system, focused on security, intrinsic value, and manual exchanges between players.
What Changed?
Valve implemented a 7-day trade reversal period. After a trade, both parties have one week to cancel the transaction. Once the 7 days pass, the trade becomes final and irreversible.
At the same time, new rules have imposed strict limits on the number of items a player can buy or sell each week:
- You can only buy up to 1,000 items per account per week, whether through the Steam Community Market or P2P trading;
- Unlimited selling is only possible via the Steam Market (SCM);
- All trades and purchases go through a temporary “invisibility” period where items can’t be used for 7 days (except those bought directly via SCM).
Large-Scale Trading Is No Longer Viable
Before this update, large-scale trading was fully automated. Traders could buy thousands of cases, agents, or capsules daily, store them in bulk, and sell or trade them via bots.
Now, that model is no longer viable without hundreds of accounts, manual effort, or complex schemes.
For example, if you hold 100,000 cases in storage, it would now take at least 100 weeks to liquidate them — at a cap of 1,000 items per week.
The market has effectively lost short-term liquidity for high-volume items.
A Shift in the Trading Philosophy
According to experienced traders like xMercy, this update puts an end to the destructive trend where the skin market turned into a crypto-like exchange, and skins became “pumpable assets”.
Now, the focus returns to individual trades, unique items, collecting, gameplay, and aesthetics, rather than just profit and graphs.
The new system also significantly improves trading security — the chance of losing expensive items to scams or phishing has dropped dramatically. Valve is restoring trust in the trading ecosystem.
What Does This Mean for Players?
- Collectors can now refocus on rare and valuable skins;
- Investors will have to rethink their strategies — volume-based approaches no longer work;
- Traders will need to adapt to new limits and explore new models of trading;
- Casual players benefit from a more stable and safer market with reduced fraud and manipulation.
The Trade Protection update is more than just a mechanic change — it has effectively rebooted the entire trading philosophy in CS2, making it more player-focused rather than dominated by bots and speculators.
