Trade Lock (Trade Hold)

Trade lock (also called a trade hold) is a restriction Steam applies automatically, not something CS2 or any marketplace controls directly. Under normal conditions it lasts 7 days from the moment an item is traded or gifted to an account before that account can trade it onward again.

The hold extends well beyond 7 days — sometimes for several months — if Steam Guard Mobile Authenticator was recently removed or the account's associated phone number was recently changed, since trade locks are Steam's primary defense against account-theft trading. This is why some marketplace listings are flagged as "tradable now" versus "tradable in X days": the seller's own copy may still be sitting inside its hold.