Drawbacks of centralization: Moscow Stock Exchange remains offline amid ongoing Russo-Ukrainian war

cointelegraph.com:

As reported by local news outlet tass.ru, the Central Bank of Russia once again suspended trading on the nation's leading Moscow Stock Exchange (MOEX) on Wednesday, and will not open the exchange on Thursday. Trading on the MOEX has been halted since Feb. 25, after Russia launched its ongoing military occupation of Ukraine. On a monthly basis, the exchange's index has lost over 34% of its value (not adjusted for inflation), as Western leaders imposed crippling sanctions on Russia in response to the conflict.

In addition, MOEX's main website has been knocked offline since Monday, with Ukraine's IT Army allegedly taking credit for the "hack." Meanwhile, Russia's Saint Petersburg Stock Exchange (SPB) also remains closed, but will open for limited trading tomorrow. But in the meantime, the Dow Jones Russia GDR Index, which tracks the value of Russian stocks listed on the London Stock Exchange, has lost 93% of its value in the last five trading days, implying disastrous losses ahead when Russian markets open. 

Theoretically, whether centralized, or CEXs, or decentralized, or DEXs, cryptocurrency exchanges would be free from such intervention. In addition to their sheer numbers, a CEXs' servers can be spread out worldwide or do not disclose their server locations. Governments can therefore ban exchanges within their borders but cannot enforce a ban on crypto trading. As for DEXs, their peer-to-peer nature typically enables anyone with an internet connection to link their wallets and swap crypto, making it difficult to enforce any type of ban altogether.

While Russian financial institutions have the means to weather a stock market catastrophe, the same cannot be said for everyday Russians. More than 17 million retail investors