Valve asks trading website OPSkins to stop trading

OPSkins, the popular skin exchange site for games like Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, may not be around much longer if Valve keeps its intentions. Sharing on its Twitter, Valve has sent a request to stop trading of OPSkins website within the next two weeks.

Just hours after being contacted, OPSkins shared its response – insisting the request ‘doesn’t mean the end’ for the website.

Regarding @opkinsgo: https://t.co/7oo1ng6Unn

— CS:GO (@csgo_dev) June 8, 2018

On June 6, OPSkins launched ExpressTrade – ‘free dance, instant exchange’ for CS:GO items. Valve felt the service violated the Steam Subsciber Agreement (Steam Terms of Use) and was used to circumvent their policy. Valve also announced OPSkins that Steam accounts participating in trading will be locked on June 21.

In response, OPSkins advises users to fully withdraw any Steam items from their accounts to avoid transaction limits when the above time is due.

The trading website also says the following:

While Valve says the reason lies with ExpressTrade, we believe this is another attempt by Valve to push revenue to the Steam Community Market. ExpressTrade is not a trading tool, but only utilizes the Steam bot since the service is free. It is designed to benefit the community by allowing free and instant exchange of items between friends. We understand Valve wants to boost SCM revenue, however, customers have clearly shown that they make their own decisions using OPSkins.

OPSkins then assures users that their funds are safe, and that they “are not going anywhere”. Explaining what comes next for the company, OPSkins said it “announced the integration of items with 19 games and services using blockchain, and since they are all ‘smart-contracts’ ( smart contract), these items cannot be taken” from the owner, nor are they subject to exchange restrictions.

In 2011, Valve added a feature to Steam that allowed in-game item exchanges. This feature does not allow items to be exchanged for real money, but third-party websites like OPSkins have taken advantage of this market to exchange for money. This creates a loophole for skins and gambling with lootboxes – which has been criticized a lot for lack of strict management.

With June 21 approaching, we will know new developments regarding this very soon!