What happened: The first text message ever sent, “Merry Christmas” was sold as a ‘Non-Fungible Token’ at a Paris auction house on Tuesday for 107,000 euros ($121,000). The history: The text, which was sent on December 3, 1992 was auctioned off by the British telecommunications company Vodafone. Neil Papworth, a Vodafone engineer sent the SMS from his computer to a manager in the United Kingdom, who received it on his 2-kg “Orbitel” telephone, which is similar to a desk phone but cordless and has a handle. The auction: The buyer, whose identity was not disclosed but is a Canadian in the tech industry, now owns a one-of-a-kind digital replica of the first SMS message in the form of NFT. Why it matters: NFTs are a type of digital asset that has gained popularity this year, with NFT artworks fetching millions of dollars. These digital objects include images, video, music and texts. They have been traded since around 2017. They exist on block chain, a record of transactions kept on networked computers. Each NFT bears a distinct digital signature.