U.S. stocks finished lower on Friday, Aug. 15, according to BlockBeats. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was initially down 0.20%, the S&P 500 fell 0.17%, and the Nasdaq dropped 0.28% at the close. Among individual names, drone technology company Unusual Machines (UMAC.N) surged 24.83%. Storage-related stocks kept rising, with SanDisk (SNDK.O) up 7.39% and Micron Technology (MU.O) gaining 2.3%. Semiconductor shares were mixed during the session: AMD (AMD.O) rose 6.5%, while Broadcom (AVGO.O) fell 5.94% and Applied Materials (AMAT.O) declined 5.12%. The move left the three major indexes in negative territory while stock performance across storage and semiconductor names diverged.

BitMEX said it will shut down on Sept. 23, 2026 at 12:00 p.m. Beijing time after halting new user registrations immediately, with new positions to be restricted from Aug. 26 and remaining positions forcibly closed after the deadline. In China, regulators in Shenzhen said a group of self-media accounts that promoted virtual currency-related business activities to domestic users had been permanently shut down under existing policy rules. The day’s roundup also included fresh market data, with BTC, ETH, SOL, XRP and DOGE all down over the past 24 hours, while tokens such as RE, VELO and WLFI led gainers on OKX data. Macro attention centered on U.S. initial jobless claims, which came in at 187,000 for the week ended July 18, below the 212,000 expectation and marking the lowest reading since the week of Sept. 24, 2022. Elsewhere, the European Union announced sanctions covering more than 100 banks and crypto operators, Argentina moved toward allowing mutual funds to invest in bitcoin and crypto, Grayscale’s Worldcoin ETF filing disclosed concentration and governance details around WLD, and several funding deals and industry statements added to the day’s developments.

The Trump administration is reportedly discussing debt and equity investments in U.S. drone makers through the Pentagon’s Office of Strategic Capital, sending UMAC, RCAT, and ONDS sharply higher.