The CS Case Index is a dynamically weighted market index intended to accurately track the value and performance of virtual items in the online game Counter-Strike. The index specifically tracks the performance of the "Case" asset class.
Counter-Strike is an online team-based competitive multiplayer shooter game series created by Valve Corporation. In 2013, the company added unique virtual cosmetics that change the appearance of the player's weapons and are linked to that player's account. These virtual items could then be used by that player or could be traded on a marketplace between players for real money. The value of the cosmetic item is determined by two primary factors, the rarity of the item, and the inherit visual appeal of the item. The trading of these virtual items has spawned a multi-million to billion-dollar market which is still ongoing years later and is one of the only examples of a functional fully virtual market.
A CS Case is a virtual box that can be obtained by playing the game, with a regular player receiving one to two per week for playing the game. A case can be one of a few dozen types of cases with each case having a different unique pool of virtual cosmetic items that it will generate when opened, with some items being rarer than others. These cases can be opened by paying a 2.5-dollar fee to Valve Corporation or sold to another player. Value for specific case types is tied to their scarcity. Many cases were only obtainable at some previous point in time in the game's history, and thus the supply of such cases is constantly shrinking.
The CS Case Index is a dynamically weighted index with the weights for the cases set every quarter. Weights are determined by creating an artificial market capitalization for each case as a percent of the sum of all investment-grade cases' market capitalization. Investment-grade cases are defined as cases that have been out of the active drop pool for six months. The starting point for the index is set on January 1st, 2016, with a starting value of 100. Data for the index is gathered from publicly available data from the Steam Marketplace and updated every hour.