In the shooter Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO), keys can no longer be resold or traded on the Steam market. Valve states that nearly all trading comes from fraudulent networks trying to launder their money. They now want to put a stop to money laundering.
This is Valve’s announcement: They state in a blog post: Previously, it was possible to observe that keys from CS:GO were traded among real customers. However, recently, fraudulent networks have been using CS:GO keys to make their profits “liquid”.
Currently, Valve assumes that almost all trading of keys on the Steam market is financed with money coming from fraud.
Therefore, Valve has decided that all newly purchased keys can no longer be traded on the marketplace. A key can only be used by the account that originally purchased it.
The old keys can still be traded.
Valve believes that this action will also affect some, if not many, real customers, but the fight against fraud is something that is given high importance on Steam.
For most players who only buy keys to open loot boxes, nothing will change. The keys can still be bought normally – just not traded or sold through the Steam market.
Virtual Currency: Skins or Keys
This is what makes it special: Valve admits that CS:GO keys are being used so drastically for money laundering. That is quite a strong statement.
CS:GO as a game and Steam as a marketplace are so large that there are always touchpoints with illegal activities, as items from CS:GO are used as “virtual currency” that can be easily exchanged for real money.
At one point, the streamer Phantoml0rd was involved in a betting scandal – it was also about CS:GO, although it involved skins.
