First SMS ever sent by mobile phone in 1992 sold for €107,000 as NFT

The first SMS ever sent over a mobile phone in 1992 was sold on Tuesday as a Non-Fungible Token or NFT for 107,000 euros, the Aguttes auction house said.

Aguttes auction house's development manager, presents a screen showing a phone with the first ever SMS in the world, a day before it was auctionned as an NFT on December 20, 2021, in Neuilly-sur-Seine near Paris. © AFP/Alain Jocard

The buyer, whose identity was not disclosed, is now the owner of a unique digital replica of the first SMS message in the form of a Non-Fungible Token, or NFT.

The first SMS was a 15-character message sent to Vodafone employee Richard Jarvis wishing him "Merry Christmas".

Digital items

NFTs are digital items that can be bought and sold using blockchain technology. They have become immensely popular for collectors, including artwork which sold for nearly $70 million at auction earlier this year.

Among those in the auction hall was 18-year-old blockchain entrepreneur Luigi Caradonna, who bowed out of bidding when the price rose above #75,000 euros.

"I thought it would be interesting to have this piece of history to hold it as an asset until next year and to sell it next Christmas," he told French news agency AFP.

Mobile network operator Vodafone has said it plans to donate its proceeds from the sale to the UN's refugee agency (UNHCR).