INTERNATIONAL: A simple message, “Merry Christmas” is worth $120,000. The text, which was sent on December 3, 1992, was the World’s first text message put up for auction by British telecoms company Vodaphone. The online auction, organized by Aguttes Auction House in France has taken place on Tuesday.

In France, it is forbidden to sell intangible goods so Aguttes auction house gave tangible form to this first text message with this digital frame which displays the code, the protocol, used to send the first text message.

The buyer has received the replica of the original communication protocol that transmitted the SMS and proceeds will go to UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency.

Vodafone engineer Neil Papworth has sent the SMS from his computer to a manager in the United Kingdom, who received it on his 2-kilogram "Orbitel" telephone - similar to a desk phone but cordless and with a handle. Non-Fungible Tokens, or NFTs, are a type of digital asset that has surged in popularity this year, with NFT artworks selling for millions of dollars.

Traded since around 2017, these digital objects, which encompass images, video, music and text, exist on blockchain, a record of transactions kept on networked computers. Each NFT has a unique digital signature.

^{PHOTO: AGUTTES AUCTION HOUSE AUCTIONEER, CLAUDE AGUTTES, ANNOUNCING SALE OF FIRST EVER SENT TEXT MESSAGE AS NFT AT 107,000 EUROS / FILE OF MOBILE PHONES / VIDEO CLIP FOR AUCTION}