Microsoft Brings Blockchain to Azure Testing Environment
Microsoft is now making its Blockchain-as-a-Service (BaaS) offering available to all users of its Azure testing environment.
Microsoft is now making its Blockchain-as-a-Service (BaaS) offering available to all users of its Azure testing environment.
Designed to allow developers to quickly create environments in Azure, DevTest Labs seeks to help companies control costs associated with development work. Other features include reusable templates, so developers don't have to design virtual machine environments from scratch, and artifacts, which tell apps what actions to take once deployed.
The add-on already supports 26 blockchains and allows developers to create and test blockchains with lower costs than a production platform.
Microsoft’s director of business development and strategy Marley Gray described it as an easy-to-use blockchain testing environment.
He told CoinDesk:
"With the Azure DevTest Labs integration, Microsoft has made it even easier for developers to get blockchain lab environments up-and-running."
Blockchain projects currently supported by Azure include MultiChain, Eris, decentralized file-storage platform Storj and prediction market Augur, among others.
Using Azure DevTest Labs, developers can create "labs" to experiment with private, permissioned, public or consortium blockchains, functionality that reflects Microsoft’s ambitions to add "every" blockchain to the platform.
The DevTest Labs offering was originally available in "preview" mode, meaning it was excluded from features such as warranty and customer support. Offerings in preview are also able to be discontinued without notice, according to an Azure support page.
Microsoft image via Shutterstock
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Digital assets posted a third consecutive quarter of losses in Q2 2026, the longest losing streak since the 2022 bear market, as institutional capital rotated into AI equities and Bitcoin ETFs recorded their largest quarterly outflow since launch. Our report examines what drove the divergence, where structural adoption continued regardless, and what Q3 signals to watch.
Digital assets posted a third consecutive quarter of losses in Q2 2026, the longest losing streak since the 2022 bear market, as institutional capital rotated into AI equities and Bitcoin ETFs recorded their largest quarterly outflow since launch. Our report examines what drove the divergence, where structural adoption continued regardless, and what Q3 signals to watch.
Why it matters:
Digital assets posted a third consecutive quarter of losses in Q2 2026, the longest losing streak since the 2022 bear market, as institutional capital rotated into AI equities and Bitcoin ETFs recorded their largest quarterly outflow since launch. Our report examines what drove the divergence, where structural adoption continued regardless, and what Q3 signals to watch.
