Payments startup Ripple reported a sharp decline in XRP sales in the second quarter of 2018, when compared to the first three months of the year.

The Q2 2018 XRP Markets Report, published Tuesday, explains that the company sold $73.53 million in XRP, compared to the previous quarter's $167.7 million – marking a decrease of 56.15 percent. Similarly, overall market volume also dropped in the second quarter, especially when compared to the fourth quarter of 2017 and first quarter of 2018.

Within the $73 million total, however, direct sales from Ripple subsidiary XRP II rose to $16.87 million, up from $16.6 million in the first quarter. Meanwhile, programmatic XRP sales fell from $151.10 million to $56.66 million (down 62.5 percent), and only accounted for roughly 0.125 percent of the global XRP volume.

Ripple still considers the period its "best quarter ever in Q2," at least in terms of the number of customers signed up. The decline in price over the period largely aligns with the overall bear market, it adds.

"The decline in both volume and price was consistent across the majority of digital assets, as many moved with tight correlation," the report states, adding:

Ripple also addresses the XRP tokens it is holding in escrow, saying 3 billion were released but 2.7 billion were returned into escrow during the quarter.

The company said the fact that Ripple's successful quarter, combined with XRP's price decline, "underscores XRP's independence from Ripple."

Ripple, which utilizes the XRP ledger for some of its payment products, notably has been pushing back recently against claims that the cryptocurrency is tied to the company. Chief executive Brad Garlinghouse said last month at a conference that the ledger is not dependent on the company, going so far as to say that XRP is not a security.

Editor's note: An earlier version of this article stated Ripple had sold $75.53 million worth of XRP. Ripple later amended its report, updating the figure to $73.53 million.

XRP image via Shutterstock