The blockchain cryptocurrency business Ripple announced today that the company is investing $25 million of its own currency in the blockchain-focused venture capital firm Blockchain Capital.

The contribution is the first time Ripple has invested in any fund in the blockchain industry. It will go into the Blockchain Capital Parallel IV LP fund, part of a larger fund currently valued at $150 million.

This parallel fund portion only accepts contributions in cryptocurrencies. As one of the first blockchain-focused investment outfits, founded in 2013, Blockchain Capital is also one of the first venture capital funds that also accepts investments in cryptocurrency tokens.

The venture fund invests primarily in blockchain related companies and raised three prior venture funds. This includes the first-ever initial coin offering for venture funding with the Ethereum blockchain-based BCAP currency.

“There are entire verticals — like healthcare or identity management — that could benefit from blockchain or distributed ledger technology,” said Bart Stephens, co-founder and managing partner of Blockchain Capital.

Blockchain Capital’s active investments include bitcoin mining hardware maker BitfFury Group, bitcoin wallet Coinbase Inc., infrastructure startup Blockstack Inc., cryptocurrency exchange Kraken and bitcoin entrepreneur Erik Voorhees’ exchange ShapeShift AG.

“Whether it’s using XRP, bitcoin or just the underlying blockchain technology, our goal is to find the best projects and give them the resources to be successful companies that deliver value to customers for the long-term,” Stephens said. The firm is reported to have more than $250 million as of March, according to CoinDesk, representing a value in both traditional and crypto assets.

Ripple is an early blockchain ledger payment protocol based on a cryptocurrency “ripple” that uses the symbol XRP. The company based its protocol on the same technology that underpins Bitcoin. Today, the company owns about 60 billion of the 100 billion XRP tokens created to run its network.

“This is the first fund that we’ve contributed to, and it won’t be the last,” said Patrick Griffin, senior vice president of strategic growth at Ripple. ”We plan to be major players in shaping the future generation of blockchain or crypto companies.”

As a company, Ripple has forged partnerships with 75 banks, including Bank of America, Royal Bank of Canada, Standard Chartered and UBS.

Ripple’s XRP market cap is currently $19.3 billion and each token is currently worth approximately 50 cents. The currency has seen rapid fluctuations as well, along with the rest of the cryptocurrency market. XRP hit an all-time high of $3.07 in January but has since fallen to its current value.

Image: Blockchain Capital