v3.26.1
Jul. 28, 2026
Schwab Crypto Thematic ETF
Risk Table - Schwab Crypto Thematic ETF
Risk [Text Block]
Principal Risks
Principal Risks

The fund is subject to risks, any of which could cause an investor to lose money. The fund’s principal risks include:

Risk Lose Money [Member] The fund is subject to risks, any of which could cause an investor to lose money.
Market Risk

Market Risk — Financial markets rise and fall in response to a variety of factors, sometimes rapidly and unpredictably. Markets may be impacted by economic, political, regulatory, and other conditions, including economic sanctions, tariffs, and other government actions. In addition, the occurrence of global events, such as war, terrorism, environmental disasters, natural disasters and epidemics, may also negatively affect the financial markets. As with any investment whose performance is tied to these markets, the value of an investment in the fund will fluctuate, which means that an investor could lose money over short or long periods.

Investing in Crypto Ecosystem Companies Risk

Investing in Crypto Ecosystem Companies Risk — The technology relating to digital assets, including blockchain and other types of distributed ledgers (digital asset technology), is new and developing and the risks associated with digital assets may not fully emerge until the technology is widely used. Currently, there are relatively few companies for which digital assets represents an attributable and significant revenue stream or source of profit. Therefore, the values of the companies included in the index may not be a reflection of their connection to digital assets but may be based on other business operations or lines of business which means that such companies’ operating results may not be significantly tied to their respective activities related to digital assets. These companies also may not be able to develop digital asset technology applications or may not be able to capitalize on those applications. Digital asset technologies may never be fully implemented, which could adversely affect an investment in the fund. Additionally, there may be risks posed by the lack of regulation for digital assets and any future regulatory developments could affect the viability and expansion of the use of digital assets.

Investment Style Risk

Investment Style Risk — The fund is an index fund. Therefore, the fund follows the securities included in the index during upturns as well as downturns. Because of its indexing strategy, the fund does not take steps to reduce market exposure or to lessen the effects of a declining market. In addition, because of the fund’s expenses, the fund’s performance may be below that of the index. Errors relating to the index may occur from time to time and may not be identified by the index provider for a period of time. In addition, market disruptions could cause delays in the index’s rebalancing schedule. Such errors and/or market disruptions may result in losses for the fund.

Equity Risk

Equity Risk — The prices of equity securities rise and fall daily. These price movements may result from factors affecting individual companies, industries or the securities market as a whole. In addition, equity markets tend to move in cycles, which may cause stock prices to fall over short or extended periods of time.

Market Capitalization Risk

Market Capitalization Risk — Securities issued by companies of different market capitalizations tend to go in and out of favor based on market and economic conditions. During a period when securities of a particular market capitalization fall behind other types of investments, the fund’s performance could be impacted.

Large-Cap Company Risk

Large-Cap Company Risk — Large-cap companies are generally more mature and the securities issued by these companies may not be able to reach the same levels of growth as the securities issued by small- or mid-cap companies.

Mid-Cap Company Risk

Mid-Cap Company Risk — Mid-cap companies may be more vulnerable to adverse business or economic events than larger, more established companies and the value of securities issued by these companies may move sharply.

Small-Cap Company Risk

Small-Cap Company Risk — Securities issued by small-cap companies may be riskier than those issued by larger companies, and their prices may move sharply, especially during market upturns and downturns.

Foreign Investment Risk

Foreign Investment Risk — The fund’s investments in securities of foreign issuers involve certain risks that may be greater than those associated with investments in securities of U.S. issuers. These include risks of adverse changes in foreign economic, political, regulatory and other conditions; changes in currency exchange rates or exchange control regulations (including limitations on currency movements and exchanges); the imposition of economic

sanctions or other government restrictions; differing accounting, auditing, financial reporting and legal standards and practices; differing securities market structures; and higher transaction costs. These risks may negatively impact the value or liquidity of the fund’s investments and could impair the fund’s ability to meet its investment objective or invest in accordance with its investment strategy. There is a risk that investments in securities denominated in, and/or receiving revenues in, foreign currencies will decline in value relative to the U.S. dollar. Foreign securities also include ADRs, GDRs, and EDRs, which may be less liquid than the underlying shares in their primary trading market, and GDRs, in particular, many of which are issued by companies in emerging markets, may be more volatile.Foreign securities may also include investments in variable interest entities (VIEs) structures, which are created by China-based operating companies in jurisdictions outside of China to obtain indirect financing due to Chinese regulations that prohibit non-Chinese ownership of those companies.To the extent the fund’s investments in a single country or a limited number of countries represent a large percentage of the fund’s assets, the fund’s performance may be adversely affected by the economic, political, regulatory, and social conditions in those countries, and the fund’s price may be more volatile than the price of a fund that is geographically diversified.

Emerging Markets Risk

Emerging Markets Risk — Emerging market countries may be more likely to experience political turmoil or rapid changes in market or economic conditions than more developed countries. Emerging market countries often have less uniformity in accounting, auditing, financial reporting and recordkeeping requirements, which may limit the quality and availability of financial information, and greater risk associated with the custody of securities. In addition, the financial stability of issuers (including governments) in emerging market countries may be more precarious than in developed countries. As a result, there may be an increased risk of illiquidity and price volatility associated with the fund’s investments in emerging market countries, which may be magnified by currency fluctuations relative to the U.S. dollar, and, at times, it may be difficult to value such investments.

Non-Diversification Risk

Non-Diversification Risk — The fund is non-diversified, which means that it may invest in the securities of relatively few issuers. As a result, a single adverse economic or regulatory occurrence may have a more significant effect on the fund’s investments, and the fund may experience increased volatility.

Thematic Investing Risk

Thematic Investing Risk — The fund invests in a portfolio of securities that are based on a theme and its performance may suffer if such theme is not correctly identified or if the theme develops in an unexpected manner. Performance may also suffer if the securities included in the index do not benefit from the development of such theme. A failure to correctly identify the theme or a failure of the theme to develop in the manner expected by the index provider may result from many causes, including government or other oppositions to the theme, incorrect or incomplete demographic or economic data, social and political changes or natural disasters. In addition, the theme may go in and out of favor, which could cause the fund to outperform or underperform other funds that invest in similar asset classes but employ different investment strategies.

Thematic Index Methodology Risk

Thematic Index Methodology Risk — The index uses a proprietary rules-based methodology, including a manual review process, to determine the companies included in the index. Neither the fund nor the investment adviser can offer assurances that the index methodology will provide an accurate assessment of included companies. The index’s proprietary natural language processing algorithm may not identify companies that would otherwise have been included in the index if the publicly available data for those companies had used the key words analyzed by the natural language processing algorithm. Alternatively, the natural language processing algorithm may identify companies that would not otherwise have been included in the index if the publicly available data for those companies had not used the key words analyzed by the natural language processing algorithm. In addition, the index’s manual review process involves manual application by the index provider of one or more factors and business metrics in order to determine a company’s positive exposure to the Theme. There is no assurance that the manual review process will accurately identify companies that have positive exposure to the Theme which may result in the inaccurate inclusion or exclusion of such companies in the index. There is no guarantee that the index will reflect the Theme exposures intended. Further, there is no assurance that the index provider will compile the index accurately, or that the index will be determined, composed, or calculated accurately.

Sampling Index Tracking Risk

Sampling Index Tracking Risk — The fund may not fully replicate the index and may hold securities not included in the index. As a result, the fund is subject to the risk that the investment adviser’s investment management strategy, the implementation of which is subject to a number of constraints, may not produce the intended results. Because the fund utilizes a sampling approach it may not track the return of the index as well as it would if the fund purchased all of the securities in the index.

Tracking Error and Correlation Risk

Tracking Error and Correlation Risk — As an index fund, the fund seeks to track the performance of the index, although it may not be successful in doing so. Further, there can be no guarantee that the fund will achieve a high degree of correlation between the fund’s performance and that of its index. The correlation between the performance of the fund and that of its index, positive or negative, is called “tracking error.” Tracking error can be caused by many factors and it may be significant.

Derivatives Risk

Derivatives Risk — The fund’s use of derivative instruments involves risks different from, or possibly greater than, the risks associated with investing directly in securities and other traditional investments. The fund’s use of derivatives could reduce the fund’s performance, increase the fund’s volatility, and could cause the fund to lose more than the initial amount invested. In addition, investments in derivatives may involve leverage, which means a small percentage of assets invested in derivatives can have a disproportionately large impact on the fund.

Liquidity Risk

Liquidity Risk — The fund may be unable to sell certain securities, such as illiquid securities, readily at a favorable time or price, or the fund may have to sell them at a loss.

Securities Lending Risk

Securities Lending Risk — Securities lending involves the risk of loss of rights in, or delay in recovery of, the loaned securities if the borrower fails to return the security loaned or becomes insolvent.

Concentration Risk

Concentration Risk — To the extent that the fund’s or the index’s portfolio is concentrated in the securities of issuers in a particular market, industry, group of industries, sector, country, or asset class, the fund may be adversely affected by the performance of those securities, may be subject to increased price volatility and may be more vulnerable to adverse economic, market, political or regulatory occurrences affecting that market, industry, group of industries, sector, country, or asset class.

Portfolio Turnover Risk

Portfolio Turnover Risk — The fund may engage in frequent trading of its portfolio securities in connection with its tracking of the index or in response to market conditions. A higher portfolio turnover rate may result in increased transaction costs, which may lower the fund’s performance. A higher portfolio turnover rate can also result in an increase in taxable capital gains distributions to the fund’s shareholders.

Market Trading Risk

Market Trading Risk — Although fund shares are listed on national securities exchanges, there can be no assurance that an active trading market for fund shares will develop or be maintained. If an active market is not maintained, investors may find it difficult to buy or sell fund shares.

Shares of the Fund May Trade at Prices Other Than NAV

Shares of the Fund May Trade at Prices Other Than NAV — Fund shares may be bought and sold in the secondary market at market prices. Although it is expected that the market price of the shares of the fund will approximate the fund’s net asset value (NAV), there may be times when the market price and the NAV vary significantly. An investor may pay more than NAV when buying shares of the fund in the secondary market, and an investor may receive less than NAV when selling those shares in the secondary market. The market price of fund shares may deviate, sometimes significantly, from NAV during periods of market volatility or market disruption, or as a result of other factors impacting foreign securities, including liquidity, irregular trading activity and timing differences between foreign markets where securities trade and the secondary market where fund shares are sold.