Schwab Adds NLP Buzzword to Crypto ETF Name Without Changing Investment

Schwab Asset Management has rebranded its $232 million crypto-equity ETF, STCE, adding 'natural language processing' to its name. The change occurred on July 28, but the fund's ticker, fee, objective, and index remained unchanged.

The fund, formerly called the Schwab Crypto Thematic ETF, uses a proprietary algorithm that searches public data for crypto-related keywords and scores documents for relevance. This process is then applied to select and weight companies in the portfolio.

As of July 27, the largest holdings were Bitdeer Technologies at 6.38%, CleanSpark at 5.46%, and Trump Media & Technology Group at 5.43%. The fund has $232.1 million in net assets and owns shares in companies connected to the crypto ecosystem, not cryptocurrency or other digital assets directly.

STCE's name change brings attention to the natural language processing method used since its launch in 2022. However, the company has not explained why the NLP wording was added four years after launch.