Investor: Bitcoin Undervalued, People Building on it Will Lead to Recovery


Francois Pouliot bitcoin crypto

Over the last 48 hours, following a large loss on Christmas, the Bitcoin price has recovered back to around $4,000.

The dominant cryptocurrency, which still holds a market valuation of over $64 billion, has demonstrated wild volatility in a wide price range from $3,100 to $4,300 throughout December, struggling to recover to November levels.

Last month, the cryptocurrency market was valued at around $220 billion. As of December 28, the valuation of cryptocurrencies remains at $133 billion, down $87 billion within a 30-day span.

Key to the Recovery of Bitcoin

According to Francis Pouliot, the CEO and co-founder of Bull Bitcoin, a company based in Canada, the asset will recover as individuals continue to build on top of the protocol and the infrastructure supporting the currency strengthens.

Throughout the past nine years, Bitcoin has consistently survived major corrections, which on some occasions worse than the 2018 bear market, as the builders, developers, and companies prepared to support the next wave of investors and users during a market downturn.

bitcoin price ethereum price
Bitcoin price (blue) vs. ethereum price (red) | Source: TradingView

Pouliot said:

The way I see the price of Bitcoin: there are fundamental psychological, economics and social tenants that seem to create a similar pattern. Price rises fast, crashers down but at higher ladder with the new skin in the game added as value hodlers is discovered by the market. As an investor my these focus on the tail of distribution of Bitcoin network/ecosystem participants. Top new people active with skin+soul in the game, momentum, influence, resources, commitment, ideology, full nodes, sovereignty. It is People that give Bitcoin its value.

Cryptocurrencies were not present in the past when the global market demonstrated signs of a full-blown recession, and as such, the narrative of Bitcoin as a safe haven asset is yet to be tested by the market.

However, with leading economists expecting the U.S. stock market to face larger sell-offs in the first quarter of 2019 triggered by the rising Federal Reserve interest rate and the trade war between the U.S. and China, Bitcoin could serve as an alternative means of payment and long-term investment throughout the years to come.

On Time Magazine, Alex Gladstein the chief strategy officer at the Human Rights Foundation, wrote:

To be sure, Bitcoin is still a nascent technology, and doesn’t offer cutting-edge usability, speed, or privacy. But engineers are constantly working to bring those attributes to Bitcoin by building better apps and on-ramps, upgrading the base protocol, and creating new second layer technologies like the Lightning Network, which could eventually mask and dramatically scale the number of possible bitcoin transactions per second.

Risk of Future Crash Declines

Throughout the past two years, many cryptocurrency-focused hedge funds have emerged with the intent of holding onto crypto assets as a long-term investment.

In the long run, Pouliot emphasized that as these hedge funds acquire tens of thousands of Bitcoin, the circulating supply of the digital asset will decline, restricting the potential amount of Bitcoin investors could buy in the public market.

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Bitcoin Trader Arrested for Murdering Girlfriend, Dumping Body in River


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An American bitcoin trader has been arrested in the Philippines for allegedly killing his girlfriend and dumping her body in a river.

Well-known bitcoin trader and Californian native Troy Woody Jr. was arrested together with Brooklyn native Mir Islam over the murder of Tomi Michelle Masters, according to the Daily Mail. The two are accused of suffocating Tomi, who hailed from Indiana, with a plastic bag before stuffing her body in a box and dumping it in Manila’s Pasig River.

Tragic End of Vacation

bitcoin trader philippines

CCTV footage that has been released shows the two men loading a huge box into the back of a ride operated by Asian taxi-hailing service and Uber-competitor Grab. While the two have confessed to dumping the body in the river, they both accuse the other of the murder, per the head superintendent of Mandaluyong City Police Custodial Facility, Igmedio Bernaldez:

We have yet to establish the motive. The three were here on vacation. If you ask the boyfriend, he will point to his friend as the killer. But if you ask the other suspect, he will say it was his friend who killed her. They are being questioned and the home they were staying at is being searched for evidence.

The suspicious behavior of the two was reported to the police by the cab driver. When the police searched the river, they found Tomi’s body which was wound in duct tape and covered in scratches. A post-mortem indicated that she died of suffocation, according to police. Troy and Tomi had been sharing an apartment in Manila after they moved to the Philippines from California.

According to friends, Tomi and Troy had a falling out earlier this month, and this emanated from Tomi’s desire to return to Indiana where she originally was from. Per Tomi’s father, Shawn Masters, Islam was of the view that if Tomi left for Indiana, Troy would follow her and consequently disrupt their ventures:

Islam needed TJ — he was the brains behind whatever it was they were doing.

‘Early Crypto Investor’

After their arrest, the two men indicated that they were both chief executive officers of Delaware-registered cryptocurrency trading firm known as Luxr LLC. On Twitter where he has more than 17,000 followers, Troy’s profile simply reads “Early Crypto Investor.” Troy’s following on Instagram is many times larger at 250,000, and in both accounts, he has documented a taste for luxuries including Swiss watches, Christian Louboutin shoes, and Dom Perignon champagne.

One of the cryptocurrency trades that Troy celebrated last year was buying Litecoin at US$50 and selling it at US$80 managing to turn a profit of US$24,000 in 11 days.

Besides trading bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, Troy is also believed to be a core member of online mischief-making group UGNazi alongside Islam. Two years ago Islam received a 12-month prison sentence for crimes that included swatting (calling police with false information in order for SWAT teams to raid homes of particular targets), cyber-stalking, and exposing the privileged personal data of his victims online.

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Expert: How Bitcoin Can Help 4 Billion People in Authoritarian Countries


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Bitcoin can help 4 billion people around the world living in authoritarian countries, according to a new essay from Human Rights Foundation Chief Strategy Officer Alex Gladstein. And there are few countries as receptive to cryptocurrencies as Venezuela. In fact, take a look at information from Localbitcoins, and you’ll see citizens of this impoverished Latin American country are buying up bitcoins like they’re going out of style.

This week, the number of purchases of BTC leaped by 11 percent to reach an all-time high of 1,974 BTC.

venezuela bitcoins

Numbers in Colombia are also surging as Venezuelans flee over the border to safer pastures. President Maduro may plead with them to return to their struggling homeland, but with pensioners forced to receive their stipends in Petro, a civilian militia at 1.6 million strong, a national currency losing value by the second, and people starving in the streets, that’s hardly a tempting option.

colombia bitcoins

Bitcoin’s Volatility is Relative

Plenty of people shrink from a volatile asset that loses 80 percent of value from one year to the next. But when your own national currency depreciates by 95 percent from one day to the next, even a “volatile” asset like bitcoin becomes appealing.

According to the IMF, inflation in Venezuela is on track to close this year at a whopping one million percentIn the US, stock markets nosedive, businesses protest, and even the president-elect calls the Federal Reserve “crazy” for hiking rates by a fraction of a percent. One million percent is incomprehensible to anyone in their right mind, and yet this figure is very real for Venezuelans.

What should the country’s citizens do with their bolivares except use them to light firewood to cook whatever scraps of food they can find?

In a discussion with a Bitcoin economist, the Spectator’s Business Editor Martin Vander Weyer said:

Venezuelans love bitcoin well, of course, they may do because it’s chaos in their country.

But it’s not just Venezuela that’s seeing increasing adoption of bitcoin.

Bitcoin in Authoritarian Countries

In fact, bitcoin can provide a way of shielding people’s wealth in any country where the people are forced to live under authoritarian governments. Just think about Zimbabwe, where its leader Robert Mugabe also printed out so much cash that he reduced his country’s citizens’ wealth to nothing and forced them to load up wheelbarrows of cash to purchase groceries.

Then there are countries with frowned-upon human rights policies like Turkey, Iran, and China. People can use cryptocurrencies like bitcoin as a way of eluding government censorship and avoiding having their transactions thrust under a magnifying glass.

Cryptocurrencies like ZcashDash, Litecoin, and Monero even allow people to send SMS remittances, allowing them to access wealth even when they can’t access a bank. This means that refugees can receive payments and be included in the financial system.  

Under 1 percent of the world currently uses bitcoin. With no more than 40 million users, the numbers are not even strong enough to make up a respectable social media platform. However, more than 50 percent of the world lives in authoritarian regimes.

Bitcoin may be clunky, volatile, slow, and not particularly user-friendly. But with improved infrastructure, mobile wallets, SMS payments, better exchanges, and education, it can (and already is) making a difference to the lives of 4 billion people living in authoritarian countries.

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UBS Director Blames Trump White House for Dow Jones Sell-Off


donald trump bitcoin crypto blockchain border wall dow jones

Art Cashin, managing director of trading floor operations for investment firm UBS Financial Services, has firmly blamed United States President Donald Trump for the stock market volatility that caused the recent Dow Jones Industrial Average sell-off.

Veteran stock market trader Cashin blamed the latest government shutdown and Trump’s attacks on the Federal Reserve for the Dow Jones sell-off, telling CNBC:

I think we lost maybe a couple of thousand points that we didn’t need to because of the disruptions that we saw.

Cashin told CNBC that “more quiet” from Washington could have allowed stock trading averages to recover, as expected end-of-year selling came to an end.

The Federal Reserve is Normalizing Rates

dow jones industrial average
Dow Jones Industrial Average | Source: TradingView

The Federal Reserve is bearing the brunt of Trump‘s critiques over economic threats as it continues to raise interest rates to more normal levels.

Lower interest rates enjoyed by the US and around the globe over the last decade were a direct response to the threat of major economic depression in the aftermath of the banking crisis. They formed part of a strategy of quantitative easing (QE) which is now morphing into “normalization” as central banks cease boosting economies to let them operate under their own natural mechanisms.

Higher interest rates combined with trade woes and stock market fluctuations are fueling recession fears. More hikes from the Federal Reserve may cut into Trump’s high hopes for the US economy. Trump believes the Federal Reserve is raising interest rates too quickly. Cashin said:

The president doesn’t seem to realize that the more he talks about what the Fed should do, the more that inhibits the Fed from doing it because they don’t want to look subservient to what’s going on. So that’s a bit of a problem.

Trading expert Jack Bouroudjian, chief economist and co-founder of the Universal Compute Exchange, agreed with Cashin, predicting the stock market could form a V-shaped bottom — meaning that stocks are mispriced at the top of selling. Bouroudjian said:

Taking a little froth out of the market…is probably the best and healthiest thing we could possibly ask for.

The Dow ended Friday trading 0.33% down and up slightly across the entire trading week despite massive mid-week plunges which followed impressive, albeit uneven, rallies.

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First to Worst: Bitcoin Named Most Disastrous Investment of 2018


bitcoin price investment crash

FinExpertiza, a network of Russian auditing and consulting firms, has lambasted Bitcoin as the least profitable investment instrument in 2018.

Russian newspaper Rossiyskaya Gazeta requested a report on the investment ranking of 14 instruments from FinExpertiza. While precious metal palladium turned out to be the most profitable investment, Bitcoin losses were noted to be 71.15% at the time the report was compiled.

Bitcoin’s price surged in the past which led people to believe that it was becoming “digital gold.” One of these advocates included Alex Gurevich, former JPMorgan executive and Mathematics professor, who said that time was working for Bitcoin despite the recent drop in price. He said, “Every day it doesn’t disappear, it gets one step closer to a permanent status of digital gold.”

However, FinExpertiza’s research put Bitcoin below silver, platinum, and gold, which only lost 15.37%, 15.16%, and 5.91% this year.

Two Sides to a Story

bitcoin price palladium precious metals
Bitcoin significantly under-performed palladium and other precious metals in 2018.

Currently, the internet is saturated with articles claiming that Bitcoin is as good as dead. The comparisons made between its price in December 2017 and this month are plastered everywhere to warn people from investing in the cryptocurrency.

However, Bitcoin hasn’t performed as badly as various researches including FinExpertiza have concluded. According to Bloomberg, when BTC’s price in 2017 and 2018 is compared with its price in 2011 and 2013, this downturn appears to be consistent with the flagship cryptocurrency’s normal market cycles.

When looking at the price plunges in the recent months, many would re-consider buying the cryptocurrency. But it must be remembered that BTC declined by 87% in November 2013 and it took almost four years for it to gain its momentum. In the same month in 2017, its lowest price was recorded as $5,555.55. Later, the price went on to break records and reach a maximum of about $20,000.

Bitcoin isn’t Dead

99Bitcoins has recorded that BTC has been pronounced dead 91 times in 2018. This figure is still not close to the 125 times Bitcoin was termed an utter loss in 2017.

Jeff Sprecher, chairman of New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), has said that despite living in a “swamp” and dropping in price, Bitcoin has still survived. “Often times in finance, it’s not about being the best — it turns out to be about being the broadest and the most commonly accepted and for whatever reason bitcoin has become that,” said Sprecher.

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It’s that time of the year again: reflecting on the year that’s past as we prepare for 2019 lurking around the corner. In this article, we have a roundup of some of our fan favorite pieces from 2018 on emerging technology.

From the rise of artificial intelligence to chatbot powered marketing, Magic Leap shaking the AR industry to big name brands snuggling up to blockchain, these were some of our highlights from the past year.

We also have a roundup of our top articles from each of our other three staple categories: marketing technology, digital marketing, and digital transformation.

1. Can artificial intelligence create content as well as a human?

Will robots take over our jobs? Ever the question.

Earlier this year, we received an email from a company that uses artificial intelligence to create content.

They said, “You choose the topic and length, and our algorithm will create your content.”

So in this article, we got some AI to actually write a bit of our article. The result? A piece of content that is surprisingly … normal. A few typos for sure, but with a bit of human editing, it could fare pretty well.

So if you’ve been wondering, “can AI create content as well as a human?” — here’s your answer.

2. How new technologies will affect your marketing strategy

Technology has played an integral role in the growth of marketing over the years.

3. 10 industries utilizing augmented reality

When it comes to augmented reality, we often think of Pokémon Go and other such games.

However, the technology has grown far beyond the gaming and entertainment sectors.

In this article, we look at popular use cases of augmented reality in the business world.

Manufacturing, education, health care, marketing, fashion, travel, navigation, retail, food and beverage, and enterprise — these are all industries using AR.

4. Brands and blockchain: How Walmart, Burger King and De Beers are snuggling up to decentralization

Is Bitcoin the future of money? Has the cryptocurrency bubble already popped?

It depends who you ask. The topic of Bitcoin is just as polarizing as it is hot. But no matter how volatile Bitcoin stocks may be, its underlying technology, blockchain, still has huge potential for digital transformation.

We often talk about blockchain in a speculative way, but brands like Walmart, Amazon and Burger King are already embracing the technology.

Diamond powerhouse De Beers even has plans for its own industry blockchain.

In this article, we look at what six big brands are doing to cozy up to decentralization and apply the power of blockchain to their work.

5. Five brands that prove chatbot-powered marketing is the future

As personal assistants like Siri and Alexa become a normal part of consumers’ digital experiences and our interactions with devices get increasingly more conversational, many companies are working to incorporate chatbots into their marketing strategies.

In this article, we look at five brands who bet on chatbots — with excellent results.

Starbucks, Aeromexico, Sephora, National Geographic, and Taco Bell are among the early adopters of chatbot-powered marketing.

6. Magic Leap shakes the AR industry in 2018. What’s next?

One of the companies that made the biggest splash in the augmented reality industry this year was Magic Leap.

After eight years of hype (a total investment of $2.6 billion), they only recently introduced their first product to their audience in August of this year.

How did their first AR headset goggles affect the AR industry? Did it meet expectations? And why is this company threatening big tech giants that want to succeed in this competitive market?

In this article, we looked at Magic Leap’s big news, what the change meant for marketers, and how would affect our strategies.

Stay tuned for more “Best of 2018” roundups on Monday!

The post Best of 2018: Emerging technology news and trends appeared first on ClickZ.

Trump considering reducing the number of US troops in Afghanistan: officials

The Trump administration is planning to reduce the number of U.S. troops in Afghanistan, with the possibility that some troops begin withdrawing in the coming weeks, according to a U.S. official. The current force of 14,000 is expected to be cut in half, with those troops arriving home by the end of the spring, a second U.S. official said.

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A third official told ABC News that discussions have been underway for several weeks about how to withdraw some U.S. troops from Afghanistan.

PHOTO: U.S. troops patrol at an Afghan National Army Base in Logar province, Afghanistan Aug. 7, 2018.Omar Sobhani/Reuters, FILE
U.S. troops patrol at an Afghan National Army Base in Logar province, Afghanistan Aug. 7, 2018.

The president discussed the plan on Wednesday with Defense Secretary James Mattis, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and national security adviser John Bolton, who all cautioned against the move, according to a fourth U.S. official and another source with knowledge of the meeting. Trump believes withdrawing troops from Afghanistan would appeal to his base and fulfill a campaign promise.

The consideration comes just one day after Trump announced he was pulling 2,000 U.S. troops out of Syria within 30 days.

Asked by a reporter over Thanksgiving if he would withdraw troops from Afghanistan, Trump replied, “We’re always looking to do the right thing. We’ll be seeing over a period of time, but we’re looking.”

Late on Thursday, Mattis announced he would leave the office of Defense Secretary on Feb. 28, 2019, writing in a resignation letter about the importance of U.S. alliances and partnerships, issues that Mattis and Trump have clashed over in the past — including Afghanistan.

PHOTO: U.S. Soldiers with Task Force Iron maneuver an M-777 howitzer, so it can be towed into position at Bost Airfield, Afghanistan, June 10, 2017.U.S. Marine Corps via AP, FILE
U.S. Soldiers with Task Force Iron maneuver an M-777 howitzer, so it can be towed into position at Bost Airfield, Afghanistan, June 10, 2017.

“Because you have the right to have a Secretary of Defense whose views are better aligned with yours on these and other subjects,” Mattis wrote. “I believe it is right for me to step down from my position.”

Asked whether the president had given any indication he intends to pull troops out of Afghanistan, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina, said on Thursday to ABC News, “I’m concerned about that, but after having been to Afghanistan, it will pave the way for another 9/11.

“It will be the most disastrous decision any president could make as to withdraw our forces from Afghanistan without conditions changing.”

There are currently about 14,000 U.S. troops serving in a counterterrorism mission against the Taliban and ISIS and as part of a train, advise, and assist mission for Afghan security forces.

Shortly after entering office, Trump decided to add 3,000 U.S. troops to the mission as part of his South Asia Strategy for the region.

“America will work with the Afghan government as long as we see determination and progress. However, our commitment is not unlimited, and our support is not a blank check,” Trump said when announcing the new strategy in August of 2017. “The government of Afghanistan must carry their share of the military, political, and economic burden. The American people expect to see real reforms, real progress, and real results. Our patience is not unlimited. We will keep our eyes wide open.”

ABC News’ Mariam Khan contributed to this report from Capitol Hill.

China calls US arrogant and selfish after hacking indictment

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China has called the U.S. arrogant and selfish after it charged two Chinese citizens with stealing trade secrets and other sensitive information from American government agencies and corporations.

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying accused the U.S. on Friday of undermining other countries’ development in order to defend its own hegemony.

Hua spoke at a regular news briefing after she had condemned the U.S. in a written statement earlier in the day for “fabricating facts” on the hacking charges.

The U.S. indicted Zhu Hua and Zhang Shilong for allegedly carrying out an extensive cyberespionage campaign on behalf of Beijing’s main intelligence agency.

They are accused of breaching computers linked to companies in at least 11 other countries, including Japan, the United Kingdom and India.

East Coast continues to get slammed by heavy rain during busy holiday travel period

Heavy rain is pounding the East Coast Friday as drivers hit the roads on a busy holiday travel day.

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Wind and flood alerts stretch from Florida to Maine Friday afternoon as the major storm system moves east.

The rain will end soon in the South, but wind gusts may still reach 30 to 50 mph.

PHOTO: Flood, wind and winter weather alerts are in place across the eastern U.S. on Friday.ABC News
Flood, wind and winter weather alerts are in place across the eastern U.S. on Friday.

In the Northeast, rain and gusty winds are wreaking havoc on the roads and in the air.

By Friday night, heavy rain will still be falling from New York City to Maine, including Boston.

Snow showers are expected for the Appalachian Mountains and into the eastern Great Lakes.

The storm will move into Canada by Saturday morning with just some lingering snow and rain showers in New England.

Western storms to come

Meanwhile, several storms are heading to the Pacific Northwest.

The storms are expected to bring coastal rain, gusty winds and feet of mountain snow to the West through Monday.

PHOTO: Snow and rain are possible over the weekend in the West.ABC News
Snow and rain are possible over the weekend in the West.

London airport reopens after day-long shutdown due to drones in the area

Two arrests were made Friday after drone sightings shut down the U.K.’s second-largest airport for a 26-hour period over Wednesday and Thursday and for a third time on Friday.

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“As part of our ongoing investigations into the criminal use of drones which has severely disrupted flights in and out of Gatwick Airport, Sussex Police made two arrests just after 10pm on 21 December,” Superintendent James Collis said. “Our investigations are still on-going, and our activities at the airport continue to build resilience to detect and mitigate further incursions from drones, by deploying a range of tactics.”

Sussex police did not provide any further details on who was arrested or how the arrests came about.

Gatwick Airport reopened on Friday morning, just to temporarily suspend the airfield in the early evening, a spokeswoman confirms to ABC News. A drone was reported to have been seen at 5:10 p.m.

Passengers at Gatwick airport settle down to wait for their flights following the delays and cancellations brought on by drone sightings near the airfield, in London, Friday Dec. 21, 2018. New drone sightings Friday caused fresh chaos for holiday traThe Associated Press
Passengers at Gatwick airport settle down to wait for their flights following the delays and cancellations brought on by drone sightings near the airfield, in London, Friday Dec. 21, 2018. New drone sightings Friday caused fresh chaos for holiday tra

The airport had already been closed for 26 hours straight this week, one of the year’s busiest days for air travel, with cancellations that affected more than 110,000 passengers.

It first shut down at 9:03 p.m. on Wednesday due to reports of two drones flying over the airfield. Despite reopening in the early morning hours, the airport was closed for most of Thursday.

Airport officials announced early Friday that the runway was open again and “a limited number of aircraft are scheduled for departure and arrival.” Sussex police told ABC News they had yet to find the drone operator who was causing the shutdown. The last drone sighting before Friday’s suspected one was just before 10 p.m. Thursday.

“Gatwick’s runway will remain closed and all flights are cancelled for the rest of the evening because of continued drone sightings in and around the airfield,” Gatwick Airport said in a statement Thursday night.

Sussex Police called the flying of the drones over the airfield “a deliberate act,” but said there was no indication the drones were terror-related.

A regional police chief told the BBC there were a “number of lines of inquiry” being pursued by police, including the possibility the drone operators were environmental activists.

Sussex Police assistant chief constable added that there were measures available to tackle the drone threat that ranged from “technical, sophisticated” options to less sophisticated options, such as shotguns.

The Ministry of Defense also announced Thursday that it was assisting police at the airport.

PHOTO: Queues of passengers wait at the check-in desks at Gatwick Airport, as the airport remains closed with flights delayed or diverted to other airports, after drones were spotted over the airfield last night and this morning Thursday Dec. 20, 2018.AP
Queues of passengers wait at the check-in desks at Gatwick Airport, as the airport remains closed with flights delayed or diverted to other airports, after drones were spotted over the airfield last night and this morning Thursday Dec. 20, 2018.

Unauthorized use of drones in the U.K. can result in fines and jail time. There have been calls for tougher sanctions after the chaos at Gatwick.

“We’ve already passed legislation in relation to the use of drones so it is now, as has been made clear, that the activity that we’ve seen is illegal and those who are caught endangering aircraft can face up to five years in prison,” U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May told The Associated Press. “That’s legislation we’ve already introduced and actually we’re consulting on further aspects of this, including for police powers, but we will continue to work with the Gatwick authorities and police will be working with the Gatwick authorities in order to bring this to a close.”

Gatwick officials said “a number” of flights were diverted to other airports and airlines were “working to provide affected passengers with hotel accommodation or transport passengers landing at other airports to Gatwick by other means.”

Airport officials said around 760 flights were canceled on Thursday. Many planes were diverted to other U.K. airports including Manchester and Glasgow, as well as nearby European airports such as Paris or Amsterdam.

“We apologize to any affected passengers for this inconvenience but the safety of our passengers and all staff is our number one priority,” the airport said in a statement.

PHOTO: In this Dec. 1, 2010, file photo, a terminal link train arrives behind a glass window at the snow covered terminal station at Londons Gatwick Airport in Horley, England.AP
In this Dec. 1, 2010, file photo, a terminal link train arrives behind a glass window at the snow covered terminal station at London’s Gatwick Airport in Horley, England.

A joint search was being carried out by Sussex Police and the airport for the drone operators, authorities said.

“I’ve got officers not only in the terminals and on the airfields looking for the drone and the drone operator, but I’ve got resources from Surrey and Sussex right the way across the outside of Gatwick trying to identify who’s operating this drone,” Sussex Police Superintendent Justin Burtenshaw said. “It’s been going on for 10 hours now and I’m absolutely certain this is a deliberate act to disrupt the airfield.”

An Aeromexico flight may have been struck by a drone just a week ago. The flight landed in Tijuana without issue, but authorities were investigating what caused a large gash in the plane’s nose.

Queues of passengers cross a concourse in Gatwick Airport, as the airport remains closed with incoming flights delayed or diverted to other airports, after drones were spotted over the airfield last night and this morning Thursday Dec. 20, 2018. LondThe Associated Press
Queues of passengers cross a concourse in Gatwick Airport, as the airport remains closed with incoming flights delayed or diverted to other airports, after drones were spotted over the airfield last night and this morning Thursday Dec. 20, 2018. Lond

Gatwick Airport, located about 30 miles south of London, is the second-busiest airport in the U.K., after London’s Heathrow Airport. It is the eighth-busiest airport in Europe, according to aviation site anna.aero.

ABC News’ Dada Jovanovic, James Longman and Alexandra Svokos contributed to this report.