It's basically NFT-like market speculation, but done within the marketplace and cutting Steam in on the profits.

I should tell you something I remember hearing from Cryptobros. They would often use steam's item trading marketplace as a sort of sign that NFTs could work, saying that their version was open source and free of DRM. However, I think that this entire fiasco could be seen as a warning sign of why this example could be turned against them, especially considering the CSGO skin gambling debacles, and I don't think they know how to solve most of the problems that already exist with steam's marketplace.