The Steam Wallet is your account balance on Steam. Money gets in through top-ups by card or gift card and through sales on the Steam Community Market. Money gets out by buying games, in-game items, Market listings or other Steam store purchases. It never leaves Steam: the Steam Subscriber Agreement says wallet funds have no cash value and are not exchangeable for cash.
This one rule shapes the whole CS2 economy. Because a Market sale pays in wallet funds, selling a skin on the Market is really a conversion into Steam store credit. If you already planned to spend on Steam, that is fine. If you wanted cash, the Market cannot give it to you.
Can I cash out my Steam Wallet?
Not directly. Steam's Community Market FAQ says the funds cannot be withdrawn or transferred to another Steam account or to a bank. The common workaround is to buy liquid items on the Market with your balance, such as cases or popular skins, then sell those items on a third-party marketplace for real money. You lose the Market fee on the way in, the marketplace fee on the way out, and the price gap between Steam and cash prices. The cash-out guide walks through which items lose the least.
Wallet funds cannot be put into a trade offer, and Steam's trading advice says never to accept trades that offer Steam Wallet credit, because funds cannot be moved between accounts by other players. Treat any such offer as a scam setup.
Why are Steam Market prices higher than cash prices?
Because wallet money is worth less than cash to most people. Sellers on the Market raise prices to compensate and buyers pay them because their balance has nowhere else to go. That gap, often called the Steam-to-cash ratio, moves with demand and differs from item to item, so check both prices before you decide where to sell.
Steam Wallet funds are held in the currency of your account, and Steam limits a wallet balance to $2,000 (or a similar amount in other currencies) and a single Market listing to about $1,800. For the exact rules, read the Steam Support page linked above rather than a link someone sent you.