When Zabo revealed it would close its services to all customers earlier this year, it was a major blow to crypto investors and application developers alike. Zabo is a market-leading aggregator that connects crypto wallets and protocols to all kinds of fintech tools, and here at Money Minx, we relied on it to do what we do best: help investors track their diversified portfolios. That’s why we decided to take matters into our own hands by building a Zabo alternative: Qroka.
(And in our biased opinion, we think it might be even better.)
Whether you’re among the ranks wondering what to do next after the news about Zabo or you’re just curious to know more about what the “Plaid of Crypto” could look like and how you’d use it, we’ll give you a full breakdown.
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Zabo: A brief history
First launched in 2019, Zabo built an application programming interface (API) that connects to the places crypto investors hold their assets, such as wallets and their accounts on exchanges. An API effectively allows different applications to talk to each other so they can exchange data for increased functionality.
In the case of Zabo, it’s an API that lets financial services providers build infrastructure that takes data from crypto platforms. As a result, users can see data from their cryptocurrency investments in other contexts, be it investment tracking or accounting.
An equivalent solution has existed for mainstream financial services for a while — numerous tools offer dashboards where you can track your spending across various cards or see the performance of different investment accounts. Plaid, an API that enables connections to bank accounts, is a market leader.
But cryptocurrency has always been one step behind, which has been yet another factor preventing their mainstream acceptance and integration with important tools and products (which would require too many resources without a solution like Zabo). For example, at Money Minx, we relied on Zabo to give investors a complete picture of their portfolio, spanning cryptocurrencies and more mainstream investments. Since its launch, the API has been used in everything from financial trackers to crypto exchanges to insurance.
Coinbase acquisition
Given Zabo’s success and the clear demand for it, it shouldn’t come as a huge surprise that a bigger organization would want to acquire it one day. Then it really happened — a Coinbase acquisition took place in August 2021. Shortly after this news, it was revealed that Zabo’s API would no longer be available, leaving the many solutions that were relying on it in the lurch. Including us.
Zabo wasn’t just the best at what it did — it was pretty much the only option, and no competitor really came close to what Zabo was offering.
At Money Minx, we’re a portfolio tracker that specializes in allowing investors to track their holdings across many different types of investments and accounts, including cryptocurrencies. We relied on Zabo to conduct our services — without it, we’d be unable to connect to our users’ cryptocurrency accounts. Given the importance of cryptocurrencies to investors now, it wasn’t something we could afford to do without in our mission to becoming an investment tracker that covers every asset and platform under the sun.
Fortunately, we came up with an alternative.
Introducing Qroka, the “Plaid of Crypto”
Okay, enough of the negativity. The loss of Zabo might have felt like a tragedy at the time, but alternatives have sprung into place. After all, if Zabo could build an API successfully, why couldn’t another team do the same thing? At Money Minx, we’ve been grinding away trying to make a viable Zabo alternative, and now it’s here — and we created it a matter of weeks after the news about Zabo was revealed.
Its name is Qroka.
We’ve used our expertise in business and technology and our personal experiences with cryptocurrencies to create the perfect API. Like Zabo, Qroka takes the data from many different crypto applications and wallets and converts it all into one format so external applications can process it.
A lifesaver for business and consumers alike, it’s perfect for:
- Crypto trackers
- Portfolio trackers
- Crypto accounting and tax software
- Digital banking
- Crypto lending
- Decentralized finance applications
Features
Qroka supports the most extensive selection of cryptocurrency integrations around. As we’re already trying to add as many accounts as possible to Money Minx, we know how important it is to keep ahead of the game. As new alts, crypto and investment providers are launched, we plan to add their integrations to Qroka.
Our API also includes support for custodial and non-custodial accounts, meaning it works just as well with decentralized exchanges and protocols as it does big names like Coinbase.
And as you’d expect for a crypto solution, of course we’re placing security and privacy at the center of everything. We use military-level encryption technology to ensure that data stays safe.
Plus, it’s extremely easy to use.
Why you should care about a Zabo alternative
Even if you don’t have experience with Zabo or even Plaid, using Qroka is a game-changer. By merging data from different wallets and addresses together, end users can get a bird’s eye view of how all their crypto accounts are doing or apply the data from their crypto accounts to other contexts.
Here are some further advantages for business and application developers.
Save time and resources
Although it would theoretically be possible for every developer to build their own API or solution to integrate third-party crypto solutions into their applications, this would be a waste of the valuable time of talented engineers.
Why should dozens of people try to achieve something if a single tool already exists that can do it on their behalf? It’s called delegation, and using Qroka will free up your time to focus on other aspects of your application.
Help cryptocurrencies hit the mainstream
Without a tool like Qroka, cryptocurrencies and crypto-related applications are always going to lag behind traditional finance solutions. And if you’re as big of a believer in the power of crypto as we are, you’ll understand that this is a massive loss to the world.
This can only be achieved if applications have the tools they need to thrive and allow people to stay on top of their investments, budgets, taxes, or whatever else they need an API for.
Fortunately, with an API like Qroka to keep everything connected, crypto technology can keep up and attract even more innovation.
How Qroka works
Qroka is already being used to connect Money Minx to crypto accounts, and we’re now in the process of launching Qroka for third-party applications. The API currently supports a range of crypto accounts, including Coinbase and Binance, and we’ll be releasing more every week.
You can even post a request in our forum if you want us to support a specific wallet or platform.
Qroka and Money Minx
If you’re already a Money Minx user, there’s no need to worry about the technical details about what’s going on behind the scenes with our API. You can simply link your accounts in the same way as when we used Zabo to connect your crypto accounts.
Just select the crypto wallet you want from the menu and link it by logging onto your account or using your API Key and Secret, with some variation depending on the platform in question.
Then, you’ll get the benefit of tracking your whole portfolio from the dashboard — not just your crypto but assets from other accounts too, from your checking account to the stocks you bought on Robinhood.
Join the revolution
It’s the end of one era but the start of a new one — and maybe you’ll find yourself agreeing that this one could be even better. Qroka is more than just a Zabo alternative —
If you’re an application owner looking for a Zabo alternative, you can get notified about when the API will be available to third parties simply by entering your email address.
Alternatively, if you’re a crypto investor, you can get started on Money Minx for free and connect your crypto accounts straightaway thanks to Qroka. As well as your crypto accounts, you’ll also be able to keep an eye on how your mortgages and crowdfunding solutions are performing — and that’s just the beginning. Why not try it for yourself?
