The American banking industry suffered steep losses Thursday, headlined by the country’s four largest banks losing a staggering $52 billion in market value. The broad decline was caused in part by fears of contagion as one of the technology industry’s largest lenders, Silicon Valley Bank, disclosed that it had been forced to sell nearly $2 billion in assets thanks to a steep decline in deposits and rapidly worsening outlook for the startups it funds, The Wall Street Journal reported. SVB’s stock plunged 60% on Thursday as a result. The rest of the industry followed, with JPMorgan losing $22 billion in market value, Bank of America losing $16 billion, Wells Fargo losing $10 billion and Citigroup losing $4 billion. “This is the first sign there might be some kind of crack in the financial system,” Bill Smead, an industry veteran and chairman of Smead Capital Management, told The Wall Street Journal.