In the most recent quarter, Ripple invested about $2.6 billion in its own cryptocurrency, XRP.

The company, which is still embroiled in a contentious SEC dispute over XRP’s status as a security, earned more than $2.9 billion by selling XRP over the counter during the first quarter.

This indicates that 88% of quarterly XRP sales revenue was used to purchase cryptocurrency on secondary markets. It spent 6% less compared to the prior period.

During the first quarter, XRP surged approximately 60%, aided by comparable gains in bitcoin (BTC) and ether (ETH).

Last quarter, Ripple’s net XRP sales were approximately $361 million, with tokens going to customers utilizing its blockchain-powered “On-Demand Liquidity” (ODL) payment channels.

The ODL is separate from Ripple’s new bank-focused settlement technology RippleNet, which does not currently enable XRP owing to regulatory issues.

Ripple sells XRP to ODL users in transactions that have no direct effect on crypto exchange prices. In 2019, it ceased selling XRP programmatically.

The San Francisco-based company began purchasing XRP a year later, according to Blockworks. Ripple stated at the time that it was doing so in order to “support healthy markets.”

Despite its high-profile run-in with the SEC, Ripple has since significantly increased its XRP purchases, which do affect the prices of crypto exchanges.

XRP traded for $0.22 immediately after the SEC’s litigation was made public, but surged as much as 700% during the bull market of 2021. Currently, it hovers around $0.47.

However, the precise effect of Ripple’s market activity on XRP’s price is still unknown. Ripple has been contacted by Blockworks for comment.