According to data from Ortex, short sellers made their largest profit since the 2008 financial crisis, earning over $7 billion from the mass sell-off of bank shares by the end of March. The banking industry saw a tumultuous month, with the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and the emergency rescue of Credit Suisse by domestic rival UBS. The global banking sector’s stocks plummeted, compounded by the US Federal Reserve’s tightening of monetary policy, causing fears of contagion.

Short selling involves borrowing an asset, selling it, and hoping to buy it back at a lower price to profit from its decline. Hedge funds that shorted bank stocks made $7.25 billion in unrealized gains during the month, according to Ortex. Peter Hillerberg, co-founder of the company, said that March was the most profitable month for short sellers in the banking industry since the 2008 financial crash.

According to Ortex data, short sellers made unrealized profits of over $1.32 billion by betting against failed Silicon Valley Bank (SVB). First Republic, another California-based bank, generated nearly $848 million in profits for short sellers as its shares fell by 89% during March.

Credit Suisse’s emergency rescue made those with short positions against the Swiss-listed stock around $610 million in unrealized profit, while shorts on both its Swiss and US-listed shares generated a combined $683.6 million in profit for short sellers, Ortex data showed.

Despite the lack of any clear reason, Deutsche Bank stock was also affected by the banking crisis ripple effect, yielding an unrealized $39.9 million for short sellers in March. Ortex reported that just over 5% of the bank’s free-float shares are currently shorted and that the shares on loan in Deutsche Bank increased by 496% during March, with much of the profits for short sellers being lost towards the end of the month when the stock’s price went up. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz publicly declared that the lender is “a very profitable bank” and that there was “no reason to be concerned.”