Schwab has renamed its crypto stock ETF to include 'Natural Language Processing' in the fund's name, effective July 28. The ticker STCE and the 0.30% expense ratio remain unchanged. The change comes about a month after the SEC's compliance deadline for its updated fund name rule.
What the new name means
The fund now calls itself the Schwab Crypto Thematic ETF with Natural Language Processing (NLP). NLP is software that scans text to find keywords in company filings. The 2026 filing adds a warning that human review can also miss the mark — a line that wasn't in the 2022 filing. The method may pick companies whose main business has little to do with crypto, the filing warns. Trump Media & Technology Group, the second-largest holding at 5.77%, runs Truth Social and has a bitcoin treasury, which likely triggered the NLP keyword scan.
A shifting portfolio
The fund's sector allocation has changed dramatically over four years. Software companies grew from 27.3% to 61% of the portfolio, while finance firms fell from 40.8% to 26%. Last year, Schwab swapped out 62% of the fund's holdings, partly because mining stocks started chasing AI contracts. Bitdeer Technologies is the top holding at 5.96% as of July 28. The stock list now has 35 names, with a maximum of 50 allowed.
Why the SEC rule matters
The SEC updated its fund name rule in September 2023, requiring 80% investment in the area promised by the name. In March 2025, the SEC pushed the compliance deadline for large fund families to June 11, 2026. On February 18, 2026, SEC staff guidance clarified that names describing a method — like 'long/short' or 'natural language processing' — do not trigger the 80% rule. That's why Schwab can add NLP to the name without changing the portfolio's composition.
The stock list is rebuilt every three months. The next rebuild will include the new human review rule, which warns that even manual checks can miss relevant companies. Schwab filed the name change on July 13, about a month after the SEC deadline. The fund started trading on August 4, 2022, and does not buy Bitcoin directly; it invests in crypto-related companies.
