Microsoft, Axelar team up to ‘further advance’ adoption of blockchain technologies

Axelar’s co-founder told Blockworks the two hope to figure out how to “extend the trust of public blockchains to the private blockchain”

article-image

The Art of Pics/Shutterstock modified by Blockworks

share

Microsoft is teaming up with Axelar to build a data integration and interoperability layer. The companies say they hope to help deliver blockchain onramps, and also indicated a desire to “further advance the adoption of blockchain technologies.”

Axelar, which is backed by Coinbase Ventures, Binance, and Galaxy to name a few, is an interoperability network that allows for secure cross-chain communication in Web3. Co-founder Sergey Gorbunov said Axelar has “been connecting a lot of public blockchains and kind of simplifying developer and user experiences.”

In an interview with Blockworks, Gorbunov stated, “I think there’s going to be a need to connect a lot of the private blockchains as well kind of make sure that assets can be issued in a secure and sort of a decentralized way across traditional Web2 stacks and Web3 stacks, and so for us, it’s a way to expand our distribution right to a lot of corporate/enterprise customers use cases around asset issuance.”

Daniel An, director of business development at Microsoft Web3 & AI, said the partnership will “accelerate blockchain integration and deliver valuable solutions to our customers.”

“By leveraging our strengths and expertise, we can empower organizations to embrace blockchain technology and transform their operations,” he said. 

The partnership intends to allow customers to access services and developer tools on AxelarJS SDX, and Axelar General Message Passing on Microsoft’s Azure Marketplace. The two will also collaborate on “AI and hybrid blockchain initiatives.” 

Gorbunov said that, through Azure, Microsoft customers will be able to “utilize all of [Axelar’s] stack.”

Specifically, customers will get access to modules on Axelar’sJS SDX, including AxelarAssetTRansfer, which allows for cross-chain token transfer through deposit address generation and Axelar QueryAPI, which is a collection of “helpful predefined queries into the network” according to Axelar’s website

Axelar’s GMP is also used by asset management protocol Sommelier

Customers will also be able to access “an end-to-end blockchain interoperability solution that is programmable and secure.”

Gorbunov told Blockworks there’s a lot of “exploratory work” for Microsoft and Axelar, but the two are working together to “figure out how do we extend the trust of public blockchains to the private blockchain.”

The partners will “explore innovative solutions that will further advance the maturity of the Web3 industry, such as seamlessly connecting private with public blockchains and leveraging Azure OpenAI services to create entirely new experiences in Web3,” the press release said.

Gorbunov hopes that Axelar, as part of its partnership with Microsoft, can focus on the need for decentralized interoperability.

“I think, overall, we’ve seen a lot of collapse from like centralized players, right, like centralized exchanges, because they’ve been offering interoperability in a centralized way, right? By just running a central database in the middle,” Gorbunov told Blockworks.

“And I think what we’re trying to do with Axelar plus what we’re trying to do with Microsoft and beyond that is really making sure that any connectivity or any application that you want to build across different ledgers can still be robust, can still be secure and decentralized.”

An example, he added, would be something Axelar has been “tackling pretty aggressively,” which is “cross-chain asset transfers and you still have decentralized exchanges being cross-chain.”


Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:

Tags

Decoding crypto and the markets. Daily, with Byron Gilliam.

Upcoming Events

Old Billingsgate

Mon - Wed, October 13 - 15, 2025

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

Industry City | Brooklyn, NY

TUES - THURS, JUNE 24 - 26, 2025

Permissionless IV serves as the definitive gathering for crypto’s technical founders, developers, and builders to come together and create the future.If you’re ready to shape the future of crypto, Permissionless IV is where it happens.

Brooklyn, NY

SUN - MON, JUN. 22 - 23, 2025

Blockworks and Cracked Labs are teaming up for the third installment of the Permissionless Hackathon, happening June 22–23, 2025 in Brooklyn, NY. This is a 36-hour IRL builder sprint where developers, designers, and creatives ship real projects solving real problems across […]

recent research

Research Report Templates.png

Research

Maple Finance has successfully navigated significant market challenges through its strategic pivot to secured lending (Maple v2) and the launch of its Syrup product. Syrup has become a primary growth driver, delivering sustainable, outperforming stablecoin yields and rapidly increasing TVL. The upcoming custody-first Bitcoin staking product (istBTC) presents another significant avenue for expansion. Crucially, Maple has achieved operational profitability, a key inflection point that, combined with a fully vested token and active buyback mechanism, strengthens its investment case. While valuation metrics suggest potential undervaluation relative to peers and growth, the primary forward-looking risk identified is the long-term sustainability of its current high-take-rate collateral staking revenue model.

article-image

Higher inflation historically lags behind tariff implementation, so don’t celebrate just yet

article-image

VanEck launches its first tokenized fund after financial giants convene at SEC roundtable

article-image

The “GameFi” platform that began its development while part of Zynga is launching another NFT collection

article-image

Funds disagree about which metrics matter, but agree fundamentals are key

article-image

PGP creator Phil Zimmermann’s connection with Bitcoin is complicated

article-image

Blockworks spoke with a dozen current and former employees about the problems that have plagued Bitget’s blockchain, Morph