Investing.com - Cryptocurrency prices were mixed on Tuesday. Ripple was in focus as its highly-anticipated product xRapid went live for the first time with three financial firms.
Bitcoin traded 0.1% lower to $6,631.5 at 1:10AM ET (05:10 GMT) on the Bitifinex exchange.
Ethereum was up 0.04% to $232.99 in the previous 24 hours.
XRP slipped 1.1% to $0.57373 on the Poloniex exchange, while Litecoin also rose 0.3% at $61.390.
Ripple said on Monday that xRapid, which uses the cryptocurrency XRP to carry out international transactions, is now commercially available. The service will be used by payment providers Mercury FX and Cuallix, as well as cooperative financial firm Catalyst Corporate Federal Credit Union, the company said.
"I'm really excited to bring the product into the market at a time when there is a lot of skeptcism about digital assets and their real use case," Asheesh Birla, Ripple's senior vice president of product, told CNBC.
"Here's something where we're finding a ton of value and providing a ton of value to our customers using digital assets to move money more efficiently."
Birla then added that banks in emerging markets are likely the next firms to use the cryptocurrency product in the future.
"Those countries have a lot more forward-looking regulation when it comes to digital assets, so I would envision that those would be the first bank adopters."
XRP spiked as much as 43% in late September on reports that it is likely to launch xRapid this month.
In other news, a group of US Congressmen wrote an open letter to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and urged the regulator to make a clear distinction between those cryptocurrencies that are securities and those that are not part of this legal category.
The Congressmen said that they decided to write the letter because the digital currency industry is crucial for growth across many economic sectors in the US.
“We are concerned of using enforcement actions “alone” to clarify SEC position toward virtual coins, and a more appropriate move is the publication of guidelines and FAQs to crypto investors,” the lawmakers explained.