The New Consensus of Young People: Labubu, CS Game Skins and memes
"You might not believe it, but it's because I like Labubu that I've become the sales champion of the store this month," said Jiani, a sales consultant for a luxury handbag brand and a passionate enthusiast of trendy toys. In an interview, she openly shared her sales secret:
"Instead of complimenting their bag for being beautiful, it's better to praise the Labubu effect hanging on their bag; the customer will feel that you really understand them."
This is the sixth year of collaboration between Labubu and Pop Mart. As early as around 2020, it had already created a craze in the Chinese market. However, it was the series of street photos starting last year, where BLACKPINK member Lisa began to hang it on high-end luxury bags, that truly made this trendy toy explode internationally.
As a result, more and more top celebrities have begun to post their Labubu, and after a lapse of five years, this IP has swept the entire fashion circle in Southeast Asia, Europe and the United States, and even jumped on the cover of foreign fashion media: "The most popular bag accessory in 2025 is LABUBU?"
Global fashion icon Rihanna hung a pink Labubu on her high-end tote bag as she exited the airport; the pop music award collector and new generation international fashion darling Dua Lipa showcased two Labubu hanging from her orange handbag on social media, making it a trending topic; Lisa's social media stories often feature walls full of Labubu collections, making her a true wild brand ambassador for Labubu.
For ordinary people, it doesn't matter that they can't afford high-end luxury goods. For less than 200 yuan, you can get a Labubu that resembles a celebrity's style and even participate in the social Consensus of the top fashion circles.
If you are lucky enough to draw a hidden edition with a probability of less than 1%, the price can multiply by more than ten times; and even if you draw a regular edition, hanging it on your bag, posting it on your social circle, or showcasing it on Xiaohongshu can still bring emotional value and social validation.
"There are actually a lot of tricks to buying different hidden models, whether the shaking sound is rustling, whether the side feels harder, and there are subtle differences in weight."
In fact, this is not Labubu's first moment of glory. Around 2020, Labubu had its first breakout moment. The blind box culture quickly swept the Z generation, satisfying personal expression while also triggering a game around "scarcity." The joy of drawing a hidden version is akin to hitting the jackpot. In the secondary market, some Labubu items were speculated from hundreds to thousands of yuan, and unboxing videos of "drawing hidden versions" became phenomenon-level content on social media platforms.
In a sense, Labubu is no longer a toy, but rather a financial product that can be priced, speculated upon, and circulated.
Interestingly, around 2020, during the first wave of Labubu's popularity, another financial product with a trendy cultural IP was also extremely popular in a more virtual space—NFT, which may be very familiar to friends acquainted with the crypto world.
The climax of NFTs came in an auction, where on March 11, 2021, the NFT work of the famous artist Beeple was hammered at auction, and the price was fixed at $69.34 million at the last second. This NFT work has become the 53rd most expensive artwork in the world, and Beeple has also entered the top three of the current living artists in terms of work value.
The internet has also given NFTs a perfect assist. It is no coincidence that the two largest social platforms on the planet, Tencent and Facebook, are both focusing on augmented reality and virtual reality (AR/VR). They envision the future internet as the Metaverse, a world where the virtual and the real can seamlessly connect. The term NFT has been discussed multiple times in relation to the Metaverse, and NFTs, which represent ownership, fit perfectly within the Metaverse.
In just a few months, the term "NFT" has landed all over the world.
American rapper Soulja Boy, who has 5 million followers on Twitter, has released his own NFT; Mark Cuban, owner of NBA championship team Dallas Mavericks, has issued NFTs; a dunk by superstar LeBron James was turned into an NFT and sold for $250,000; top football clubs like Barcelona and AC Milan also have their own NFTs.
In that round of NFT frenzy, the most representative IP is undoubtedly BAYC (Bored Ape).
This avatar NFT project launched by Yuga Labs went live in the spring of 2021, initially priced at only 0.08 ETH (about 200 USD), and sold out within 24 hours. It quickly became popular as a social avatar on social media platforms.
Jimmy Fallon shows off his ape on a stand-up comedy, calling it "a status symbol for the next era"; Snoop Dogg and Eminem shared the stage as BAYC at the MTV Awards; Justin Bieber paid $1.3 million for a rare ape; Curry, Neymar and other top stars boost; Artists such as Jay Chou and Lin Junjie have also posted BAYC avatars; The traditional financial circle has also been infected with this trend: Cai Wensheng, chairman of Meitu Group, a listed company, and Zhu Xiaohu, a partner of GSR Ventures, are all holders.
A small image can showcase identity tags and "social assets."
On the trading level, BAYC has created the pinnacle paradigm of NFT assetization: at its peak, a single piece sold for as high as 400,000 USD (approximately 150 ETH), with floor prices breaking 100 ETH and total trading volume across the network exceeding 1.5 billion USD.
NFT and Pop Mart are actually doing the same thing: using a seemingly toy-like medium to stimulate a community's desire to participate, express, and identify.
Their process of "financial productization" is surprisingly similar: they all have significant avatar/image recognition; they all emphasize scarcity: rare models, limited editions; they all tie in star effects, leading to explosive popularity; and they all form a market structure that moves from "original price entry" to "secondary speculation."
Labubu is a physical NFT, and the NFT is a more virtual Labubu.
However, after all, there is only one Wang Ning, and the NFT circle is still not mainstream enough. Since 2022, Labubu and the fate of NFTs have gradually diverged.
In the second year of BAYC's highs, the crypto market as a whole entered a downward cycle, and the myth of NFTs began to cool down. BAYC, the former leader of NFTs, has also become a leader in the decline - the floor price fell from 150 ETH to below 20 ETH, and now only 13 ETH remains, which is equivalent to one-tenth of its peak value. The holders "got off the avatar" one after another, and the once bustling community gradually fell silent. The avatar that used to be the "entry business card" of the crypto circle has also begun to be ridiculed as a "ceiling trap on the chain", and all of them have lost at least $300,000.
However, Labubu's fire is getting stronger and stronger, firmly sitting at the top of the trendy toy rankings.
"The audience of Labubu surprisingly overlaps a lot with people who buy luxury bags," Jiani said. "Some customers are just casually browsing, but as soon as I see Labubu on their bag, the conversation and sense of distance just open up, and we can chat for a long time, ultimately making the customer happy to buy a bag."
However, Jiani revealed that there are indeed girls who want to find a more suitable "carrier" for their beloved Labubu. They walk into luxury stores for the first time and buy their first designer bag. With the Labubu IP, Pop Mart, in its 15th year, surprisingly began to achieve a reverse influence on the sales logic of luxury goods.
Even in the capital markets, there has been a seemingly magical moment: Pop Mart's share price has risen in the dust, almost the same trend in recent years as 20 times that of Bitcoin in 2017, and even surpassed the parent company of luxury giant Gucci in market capitalization at one point.
Looking back, the Hong Kong artist Long Jiaseng, who created the Labubu character just 10 years ago, probably could not have imagined that this somewhat "weird" and furry sprite would now naturally become the most profitable IP of Pop Mart, completely surpassing the veteran IP MOLLY, and rightfully taking the center stage.
The Labubu collaboration, originally priced at 599 yuan, can now be traded on the secondary market for 14,000 yuan, an increase of over 20 times; the Vans collaboration trendy shoes have a transaction price of 2,000-3,000 USD in overseas markets, rivaling limited edition trendy shoes; specific limited series (such as "Big Into Energy" or the "Wings of Fortune" in collaboration with Pronounce) have seen prices soar due to aggressive designs and restricted regional investment (such as limited to Thailand and Singapore).
We have witnessed a generation that has redefined "ownership" through two parallel universes.
In addition to "on-chain avatars" and "offline dolls," there is a more secretive, more durable, and more actively traded "Consensus asset market" in the larger virtual space—game skins.
Although this game has been remade and renamed to CS2, it has existed for more than 10 years prior to this, so when discussing the skins and items of this game, everyone still tends to casually use the name CSGO.
Half a month ago, the CS item market experienced a "collapse." According to data from a data platform, after about half a year of a prolonged bull market, the CS item market fell by 30% within a week from its historical peak, almost equivalent to a "312" crash in the cryptocurrency market.
According to media reports, by the end of April this year, the total market capitalization of the CS jewelry market exceeded $4.5 billion. According to CS2 Case Tracker, in the first 4 months of 2025, more than 113 million cosmetic cases were opened in CS games. If we calculate based on $2.49 per cosmetic box key, in the first 4 months of 2025 alone, players will contribute close to $300 million in revenue to game developers by opening CS cosmetic items.
Like Pop Mart, the CS accessory market also took ten years to enter the public eye.
"When it was first launched, there was no introduction of in-game items and the item market mechanism, and it can be said that skins saved this game." Cookie, who is both an NFT and a veteran player of CSGO, said: "Although it may sound a bit like hindsight, it's true that many people who don't play CS have come to know this game because of the skyrocketing prices of items. Therefore, this game, which started to gain popularity in the internet cafe era, has not fallen and is still popular today."
In August 2013, the game first introduced the item mechanism, and the platform also supported the trading of CS items. During the later period when NFTs became popular, the CS item market also received attention and was sought after due to its similarities with NFTs. Looking back at the design of the item mechanism at that time, one can't help but sigh that game developers were, in a sense, the pioneers of rarity design.
CS's accessories not only have rarity level distinctions but also feature randomness in wear level and pattern templates, which leads to certain accessories being able to sell at the highest prices in the entire market, even if their acquisition probability does not correspond to the highest rarity level.
"Wear level does not refer to players' skins getting worn down with use in the game, but rather the integrity or shine of the cosmetic skins," Cookie explained.
Pattern templates, simply understood, can be that a gun sometimes does not display a complete "picture". Because the coverage area of the skin is limited, the effect will vary greatly depending on which part of the "picture" is displayed on the weapon.
A very similar example is Dmitri Cherniak's generative art project Ringers, released in 2021, which generated the image of Ringers #879, which resembled a goose, which was sold to an investment institution for 1,800 ETH (about $5.6 million), making it one of the most expensive generative art works on the market at the time.
This AK-47 is surface-hardened. Although both have a "factory new" level of wear, the different pattern templates lead to a significant price difference. The selling price for the ordinary template is around 2500 RMB, while the top-tier template is worth millions, even though this skin is not the highest rarity weapon skin.
Not only that, but CS's sticker system and esports events also give the cosmetic an extra narrative value. In 2014, the sticker cosmetic mechanic was introduced in-game. This mechanic seems very simple, it is to put some prints on weapon skins, and it has since become another important cosmetic mainstay in CS. The disbandment of the team and the retirement of the players will make the relevant stickers rise.
The first wave of development in the CS accessory market is somewhat similar to Bitcoin, both taking root in "gray areas." Bitcoin in the dark web, while CS accessories are on virtual gambling sites.
Before 2016, a large number of accessories were used as gambling chips, betting on the results of e-sports competitions on some platforms, and even participating in roulette. This way of playing rapidly drove up the prices of accessories and also attracted minors to participate, leading to frequent match-fixing and other chaos, ultimately prompting the authorities to take action to regulate the situation, issuing cease and desist letters to several accessory gambling websites, demanding they stop unauthorized gambling activities using the platform's API.
The CS accessory market has experienced a brief cooling, but it has not completely dissipated. The symbolic significance of high-end accessories for players' identities has already taken root in people's hearts.
Just like Labubu enthusiast Jiani, who loves to watch "trendy toy unboxing videos, especially opening hidden models", having a dream knife in CS is the pursuit of every long-term watcher and gamer, giving birth to a large number of CS unboxing videos and live broadcasts, and experiencing the thrill of turning a bicycle into a motorcycle.
"The most typical is that an anchor became popular around 2018, which led to the popularity of this game in China", Cookie recalled, at the same time, the third-party jewelry trading platform was launched, and the cooperation between the third-party jewelry trading platform and the game platform entered a stable stage.
During the pandemic, the number of users on gaming platforms reached a historical high, with players worldwide flooding in and box opening volumes soaring. Furthermore, with the rise of the NFT concept, the label "off-chain NFT" has transformed CS skins from in-game items into a part of the "digital collectibles" ecosystem—possessing an independent pricing system and scarce consensus.
"At this stage, CS items have also developed 'opinion leaders', and an independent pricing system has basically been established. There are explanations for the value of guns based on wear levels and templates. On video platforms, there are already many CS item guide videos, and new ones continue to emerge." said Cookie.
It can also be seen that there are many similarities between NFTs in the CS jewelry market and the crypto market: the minting is random, and the rarity differentiates the value and liquidity. The rare ones are expensive but not easy to sell, and the flooring ones are cheap but easy to sell. Even in the CS trinket market, there are original skins like the Claw Knife and the Butterfly Knife, which are price-oriented like Bitcoin's position as a large-cap indicator.
"However, because CS itself is really a very good game, it is unrivaled in the FPS track, so it is quite active in the CS jewelry market, and the liquidity is not a little better than NFT." Cookie adds: "Rather than saying that what these young people like is developing hype attributes that shouldn't be there, I'd rather say that it's the collective consciousness of young people, which gives young people unique asset pricing power."
Such examples appear in CS items, in NFTs, and continue to emerge in various communities.
Let's start with sneakers. In the past 10 years, Nike and Adidas may not have designed any technological innovations, but they have turned the "sneaker" thing into a financial product: a pair of AJ1 "Chicago", which originally cost 1299 yuan, can now be speculated for 4000 yuan in the market; After the discontinuation of a certain brand of shoes, the whole line took off, and the price of some colors doubled; The co-branded series of Solomon and Asics, which used to belong to the running industry, has now become the new favorite of shoe sellers.
Speaking of bags. From various collaborations and mini bags favored by girls to tool boxes and limited collaborations that boys are snatching up, each one could potentially be a chip for making a comeback on second-hand platforms.
In the disdain chain of the trendy circle, whoever carries a limited edition item is like having an extra rare NFT in their wallet address.
Speculating on sneakers, bags, and NFTs seems to have some "middle-class attributes," but what about cigarette cards?
Don't laugh, smoking has become a spiritual totem for the younger generation on social media.
Behind this is a trend of "collecting cards" among primary school students. From Ultraman at the beginning to My Little Pony, which will gradually become popular in 2023, and then to this year's Nezha series of cards, the unit price is not high, ranging from 2 yuan, 5 yuan to 10 yuan, but the gross profit margin of the company behind it is as high as 71%, and it will earn more than Bubble Mart in 2024.
Even when securing Series A financing, the company boldly signed a bet agreement with the investors (well-known investment institutions). It mentioned that the company must complete its IPO before the fifth anniversary of the preferred stock issuance date (i.e., 2026), otherwise, it will trigger a buyback, with an annualized buyback interest rate of 8%.
You think young people are wasting money, but in fact, they are establishing a new pricing model: emotions, community, culture, aesthetics, discourse power, and traffic are all things that can be priced.
Everything can be speculated, it's just that each generation has its own "heavenly beads".
In the theory of "value investing," MEME coins and niche cryptocurrencies have always been marginalized, even in the bubble-filled world of cryptocurrency. But seeing this, I think many people who once couldn't understand the small coins and memes in the cryptocurrency sphere should be able to understand why young people are so eager to speculate on coins.
They are more like participating in a decentralized youth culture investment - except that the asset is not a business or project, but rather a joke, an image, or even a phrase.
PEPE, which began as a character in a cartoonist's 2005 online comic, has since evolved into a widely recognized meme symbol on the internet, behind which a community of countless anonymous artists has gathered to create a wide variety of Pepe images that play a diverse role in different cultural contexts and social media platforms.
The PEPE meme coin quietly launched in the spring of 2023. There was no white paper, no team introduction, and not even a practical use case, just a single image. But within three days of its launch, the price skyrocketed by 7000%, and its market cap surpassed 1 billion dollars. Even a well-known exchange co-founder called himself a "frog believer", and PEPE became a hallmark example of the new generation of meme coins.
In fact, all cryptocurrencies have meme attributes, just in varying degrees, including Bitcoin.
As the first successful cryptocurrency, the philosophy behind Bitcoin, its anonymous creator Satoshi Nakamoto, and its spirit of resisting traditional financial systems all give it significance that goes beyond technology.
So from this perspective, Bitcoin itself is the earliest MEME, representing the pursuit of power, freedom, and systemic change. This symbolic meaning transcends its function as a currency, becoming a hallmark of a cultural and social movement. Later on, it is almost impossible to fully
The content is for reference only, not a solicitation or offer. No investment, tax, or legal advice provided. See Disclaimer for more risks disclosure.
The New Generation Young People's Consensus Pricing Theory: The Financial Story of Labubu, CS Skins, and Memes
The New Consensus of Young People: Labubu, CS Game Skins and memes
"You might not believe it, but it's because I like Labubu that I've become the sales champion of the store this month," said Jiani, a sales consultant for a luxury handbag brand and a passionate enthusiast of trendy toys. In an interview, she openly shared her sales secret:
"Instead of complimenting their bag for being beautiful, it's better to praise the Labubu effect hanging on their bag; the customer will feel that you really understand them."
This is the sixth year of collaboration between Labubu and Pop Mart. As early as around 2020, it had already created a craze in the Chinese market. However, it was the series of street photos starting last year, where BLACKPINK member Lisa began to hang it on high-end luxury bags, that truly made this trendy toy explode internationally.
As a result, more and more top celebrities have begun to post their Labubu, and after a lapse of five years, this IP has swept the entire fashion circle in Southeast Asia, Europe and the United States, and even jumped on the cover of foreign fashion media: "The most popular bag accessory in 2025 is LABUBU?"
Global fashion icon Rihanna hung a pink Labubu on her high-end tote bag as she exited the airport; the pop music award collector and new generation international fashion darling Dua Lipa showcased two Labubu hanging from her orange handbag on social media, making it a trending topic; Lisa's social media stories often feature walls full of Labubu collections, making her a true wild brand ambassador for Labubu.
For ordinary people, it doesn't matter that they can't afford high-end luxury goods. For less than 200 yuan, you can get a Labubu that resembles a celebrity's style and even participate in the social Consensus of the top fashion circles.
If you are lucky enough to draw a hidden edition with a probability of less than 1%, the price can multiply by more than ten times; and even if you draw a regular edition, hanging it on your bag, posting it on your social circle, or showcasing it on Xiaohongshu can still bring emotional value and social validation.
"There are actually a lot of tricks to buying different hidden models, whether the shaking sound is rustling, whether the side feels harder, and there are subtle differences in weight."
In fact, this is not Labubu's first moment of glory. Around 2020, Labubu had its first breakout moment. The blind box culture quickly swept the Z generation, satisfying personal expression while also triggering a game around "scarcity." The joy of drawing a hidden version is akin to hitting the jackpot. In the secondary market, some Labubu items were speculated from hundreds to thousands of yuan, and unboxing videos of "drawing hidden versions" became phenomenon-level content on social media platforms.
In a sense, Labubu is no longer a toy, but rather a financial product that can be priced, speculated upon, and circulated.
Interestingly, around 2020, during the first wave of Labubu's popularity, another financial product with a trendy cultural IP was also extremely popular in a more virtual space—NFT, which may be very familiar to friends acquainted with the crypto world.
The climax of NFTs came in an auction, where on March 11, 2021, the NFT work of the famous artist Beeple was hammered at auction, and the price was fixed at $69.34 million at the last second. This NFT work has become the 53rd most expensive artwork in the world, and Beeple has also entered the top three of the current living artists in terms of work value.
The internet has also given NFTs a perfect assist. It is no coincidence that the two largest social platforms on the planet, Tencent and Facebook, are both focusing on augmented reality and virtual reality (AR/VR). They envision the future internet as the Metaverse, a world where the virtual and the real can seamlessly connect. The term NFT has been discussed multiple times in relation to the Metaverse, and NFTs, which represent ownership, fit perfectly within the Metaverse.
In just a few months, the term "NFT" has landed all over the world.
American rapper Soulja Boy, who has 5 million followers on Twitter, has released his own NFT; Mark Cuban, owner of NBA championship team Dallas Mavericks, has issued NFTs; a dunk by superstar LeBron James was turned into an NFT and sold for $250,000; top football clubs like Barcelona and AC Milan also have their own NFTs.
In that round of NFT frenzy, the most representative IP is undoubtedly BAYC (Bored Ape).
This avatar NFT project launched by Yuga Labs went live in the spring of 2021, initially priced at only 0.08 ETH (about 200 USD), and sold out within 24 hours. It quickly became popular as a social avatar on social media platforms.
! Young People's New Consensus: Labubu, CSGO & Meme Coins
Jimmy Fallon shows off his ape on a stand-up comedy, calling it "a status symbol for the next era"; Snoop Dogg and Eminem shared the stage as BAYC at the MTV Awards; Justin Bieber paid $1.3 million for a rare ape; Curry, Neymar and other top stars boost; Artists such as Jay Chou and Lin Junjie have also posted BAYC avatars; The traditional financial circle has also been infected with this trend: Cai Wensheng, chairman of Meitu Group, a listed company, and Zhu Xiaohu, a partner of GSR Ventures, are all holders.
A small image can showcase identity tags and "social assets."
On the trading level, BAYC has created the pinnacle paradigm of NFT assetization: at its peak, a single piece sold for as high as 400,000 USD (approximately 150 ETH), with floor prices breaking 100 ETH and total trading volume across the network exceeding 1.5 billion USD.
NFT and Pop Mart are actually doing the same thing: using a seemingly toy-like medium to stimulate a community's desire to participate, express, and identify.
Their process of "financial productization" is surprisingly similar: they all have significant avatar/image recognition; they all emphasize scarcity: rare models, limited editions; they all tie in star effects, leading to explosive popularity; and they all form a market structure that moves from "original price entry" to "secondary speculation."
Labubu is a physical NFT, and the NFT is a more virtual Labubu.
! Young People's New Consensus: Labubu, CSGO & Meme Coins
However, after all, there is only one Wang Ning, and the NFT circle is still not mainstream enough. Since 2022, Labubu and the fate of NFTs have gradually diverged.
In the second year of BAYC's highs, the crypto market as a whole entered a downward cycle, and the myth of NFTs began to cool down. BAYC, the former leader of NFTs, has also become a leader in the decline - the floor price fell from 150 ETH to below 20 ETH, and now only 13 ETH remains, which is equivalent to one-tenth of its peak value. The holders "got off the avatar" one after another, and the once bustling community gradually fell silent. The avatar that used to be the "entry business card" of the crypto circle has also begun to be ridiculed as a "ceiling trap on the chain", and all of them have lost at least $300,000.
However, Labubu's fire is getting stronger and stronger, firmly sitting at the top of the trendy toy rankings.
"The audience of Labubu surprisingly overlaps a lot with people who buy luxury bags," Jiani said. "Some customers are just casually browsing, but as soon as I see Labubu on their bag, the conversation and sense of distance just open up, and we can chat for a long time, ultimately making the customer happy to buy a bag."
However, Jiani revealed that there are indeed girls who want to find a more suitable "carrier" for their beloved Labubu. They walk into luxury stores for the first time and buy their first designer bag. With the Labubu IP, Pop Mart, in its 15th year, surprisingly began to achieve a reverse influence on the sales logic of luxury goods.
Even in the capital markets, there has been a seemingly magical moment: Pop Mart's share price has risen in the dust, almost the same trend in recent years as 20 times that of Bitcoin in 2017, and even surpassed the parent company of luxury giant Gucci in market capitalization at one point.
Looking back, the Hong Kong artist Long Jiaseng, who created the Labubu character just 10 years ago, probably could not have imagined that this somewhat "weird" and furry sprite would now naturally become the most profitable IP of Pop Mart, completely surpassing the veteran IP MOLLY, and rightfully taking the center stage.
! Young People's New Consensus: Labubu, CSGO & Meme Coins
The Labubu collaboration, originally priced at 599 yuan, can now be traded on the secondary market for 14,000 yuan, an increase of over 20 times; the Vans collaboration trendy shoes have a transaction price of 2,000-3,000 USD in overseas markets, rivaling limited edition trendy shoes; specific limited series (such as "Big Into Energy" or the "Wings of Fortune" in collaboration with Pronounce) have seen prices soar due to aggressive designs and restricted regional investment (such as limited to Thailand and Singapore).
We have witnessed a generation that has redefined "ownership" through two parallel universes.
In addition to "on-chain avatars" and "offline dolls," there is a more secretive, more durable, and more actively traded "Consensus asset market" in the larger virtual space—game skins.
Although this game has been remade and renamed to CS2, it has existed for more than 10 years prior to this, so when discussing the skins and items of this game, everyone still tends to casually use the name CSGO.
Half a month ago, the CS item market experienced a "collapse." According to data from a data platform, after about half a year of a prolonged bull market, the CS item market fell by 30% within a week from its historical peak, almost equivalent to a "312" crash in the cryptocurrency market.
According to media reports, by the end of April this year, the total market capitalization of the CS jewelry market exceeded $4.5 billion. According to CS2 Case Tracker, in the first 4 months of 2025, more than 113 million cosmetic cases were opened in CS games. If we calculate based on $2.49 per cosmetic box key, in the first 4 months of 2025 alone, players will contribute close to $300 million in revenue to game developers by opening CS cosmetic items.
Like Pop Mart, the CS accessory market also took ten years to enter the public eye.
"When it was first launched, there was no introduction of in-game items and the item market mechanism, and it can be said that skins saved this game." Cookie, who is both an NFT and a veteran player of CSGO, said: "Although it may sound a bit like hindsight, it's true that many people who don't play CS have come to know this game because of the skyrocketing prices of items. Therefore, this game, which started to gain popularity in the internet cafe era, has not fallen and is still popular today."
In August 2013, the game first introduced the item mechanism, and the platform also supported the trading of CS items. During the later period when NFTs became popular, the CS item market also received attention and was sought after due to its similarities with NFTs. Looking back at the design of the item mechanism at that time, one can't help but sigh that game developers were, in a sense, the pioneers of rarity design.
CS's accessories not only have rarity level distinctions but also feature randomness in wear level and pattern templates, which leads to certain accessories being able to sell at the highest prices in the entire market, even if their acquisition probability does not correspond to the highest rarity level.
"Wear level does not refer to players' skins getting worn down with use in the game, but rather the integrity or shine of the cosmetic skins," Cookie explained.
Pattern templates, simply understood, can be that a gun sometimes does not display a complete "picture". Because the coverage area of the skin is limited, the effect will vary greatly depending on which part of the "picture" is displayed on the weapon.
A very similar example is Dmitri Cherniak's generative art project Ringers, released in 2021, which generated the image of Ringers #879, which resembled a goose, which was sold to an investment institution for 1,800 ETH (about $5.6 million), making it one of the most expensive generative art works on the market at the time.
This AK-47 is surface-hardened. Although both have a "factory new" level of wear, the different pattern templates lead to a significant price difference. The selling price for the ordinary template is around 2500 RMB, while the top-tier template is worth millions, even though this skin is not the highest rarity weapon skin.
Not only that, but CS's sticker system and esports events also give the cosmetic an extra narrative value. In 2014, the sticker cosmetic mechanic was introduced in-game. This mechanic seems very simple, it is to put some prints on weapon skins, and it has since become another important cosmetic mainstay in CS. The disbandment of the team and the retirement of the players will make the relevant stickers rise.
The first wave of development in the CS accessory market is somewhat similar to Bitcoin, both taking root in "gray areas." Bitcoin in the dark web, while CS accessories are on virtual gambling sites.
Before 2016, a large number of accessories were used as gambling chips, betting on the results of e-sports competitions on some platforms, and even participating in roulette. This way of playing rapidly drove up the prices of accessories and also attracted minors to participate, leading to frequent match-fixing and other chaos, ultimately prompting the authorities to take action to regulate the situation, issuing cease and desist letters to several accessory gambling websites, demanding they stop unauthorized gambling activities using the platform's API.
The CS accessory market has experienced a brief cooling, but it has not completely dissipated. The symbolic significance of high-end accessories for players' identities has already taken root in people's hearts.
Just like Labubu enthusiast Jiani, who loves to watch "trendy toy unboxing videos, especially opening hidden models", having a dream knife in CS is the pursuit of every long-term watcher and gamer, giving birth to a large number of CS unboxing videos and live broadcasts, and experiencing the thrill of turning a bicycle into a motorcycle.
"The most typical is that an anchor became popular around 2018, which led to the popularity of this game in China", Cookie recalled, at the same time, the third-party jewelry trading platform was launched, and the cooperation between the third-party jewelry trading platform and the game platform entered a stable stage.
During the pandemic, the number of users on gaming platforms reached a historical high, with players worldwide flooding in and box opening volumes soaring. Furthermore, with the rise of the NFT concept, the label "off-chain NFT" has transformed CS skins from in-game items into a part of the "digital collectibles" ecosystem—possessing an independent pricing system and scarce consensus.
! Young People's New Consensus: Labubu, CSGO & Meme Coins
"At this stage, CS items have also developed 'opinion leaders', and an independent pricing system has basically been established. There are explanations for the value of guns based on wear levels and templates. On video platforms, there are already many CS item guide videos, and new ones continue to emerge." said Cookie.
It can also be seen that there are many similarities between NFTs in the CS jewelry market and the crypto market: the minting is random, and the rarity differentiates the value and liquidity. The rare ones are expensive but not easy to sell, and the flooring ones are cheap but easy to sell. Even in the CS trinket market, there are original skins like the Claw Knife and the Butterfly Knife, which are price-oriented like Bitcoin's position as a large-cap indicator.
"However, because CS itself is really a very good game, it is unrivaled in the FPS track, so it is quite active in the CS jewelry market, and the liquidity is not a little better than NFT." Cookie adds: "Rather than saying that what these young people like is developing hype attributes that shouldn't be there, I'd rather say that it's the collective consciousness of young people, which gives young people unique asset pricing power."
Such examples appear in CS items, in NFTs, and continue to emerge in various communities.
Let's start with sneakers. In the past 10 years, Nike and Adidas may not have designed any technological innovations, but they have turned the "sneaker" thing into a financial product: a pair of AJ1 "Chicago", which originally cost 1299 yuan, can now be speculated for 4000 yuan in the market; After the discontinuation of a certain brand of shoes, the whole line took off, and the price of some colors doubled; The co-branded series of Solomon and Asics, which used to belong to the running industry, has now become the new favorite of shoe sellers.
Speaking of bags. From various collaborations and mini bags favored by girls to tool boxes and limited collaborations that boys are snatching up, each one could potentially be a chip for making a comeback on second-hand platforms.
In the disdain chain of the trendy circle, whoever carries a limited edition item is like having an extra rare NFT in their wallet address.
Speculating on sneakers, bags, and NFTs seems to have some "middle-class attributes," but what about cigarette cards?
Don't laugh, smoking has become a spiritual totem for the younger generation on social media.
Behind this is a trend of "collecting cards" among primary school students. From Ultraman at the beginning to My Little Pony, which will gradually become popular in 2023, and then to this year's Nezha series of cards, the unit price is not high, ranging from 2 yuan, 5 yuan to 10 yuan, but the gross profit margin of the company behind it is as high as 71%, and it will earn more than Bubble Mart in 2024.
Even when securing Series A financing, the company boldly signed a bet agreement with the investors (well-known investment institutions). It mentioned that the company must complete its IPO before the fifth anniversary of the preferred stock issuance date (i.e., 2026), otherwise, it will trigger a buyback, with an annualized buyback interest rate of 8%.
You think young people are wasting money, but in fact, they are establishing a new pricing model: emotions, community, culture, aesthetics, discourse power, and traffic are all things that can be priced.
Everything can be speculated, it's just that each generation has its own "heavenly beads".
In the theory of "value investing," MEME coins and niche cryptocurrencies have always been marginalized, even in the bubble-filled world of cryptocurrency. But seeing this, I think many people who once couldn't understand the small coins and memes in the cryptocurrency sphere should be able to understand why young people are so eager to speculate on coins.
They are more like participating in a decentralized youth culture investment - except that the asset is not a business or project, but rather a joke, an image, or even a phrase.
PEPE, which began as a character in a cartoonist's 2005 online comic, has since evolved into a widely recognized meme symbol on the internet, behind which a community of countless anonymous artists has gathered to create a wide variety of Pepe images that play a diverse role in different cultural contexts and social media platforms.
The PEPE meme coin quietly launched in the spring of 2023. There was no white paper, no team introduction, and not even a practical use case, just a single image. But within three days of its launch, the price skyrocketed by 7000%, and its market cap surpassed 1 billion dollars. Even a well-known exchange co-founder called himself a "frog believer", and PEPE became a hallmark example of the new generation of meme coins.
In fact, all cryptocurrencies have meme attributes, just in varying degrees, including Bitcoin.
As the first successful cryptocurrency, the philosophy behind Bitcoin, its anonymous creator Satoshi Nakamoto, and its spirit of resisting traditional financial systems all give it significance that goes beyond technology.
So from this perspective, Bitcoin itself is the earliest MEME, representing the pursuit of power, freedom, and systemic change. This symbolic meaning transcends its function as a currency, becoming a hallmark of a cultural and social movement. Later on, it is almost impossible to fully