Maybe I'm just paranoid but I frequent lots of "alternative news" sites (which would probably be a target market)and there is a large segment of those communities which seem to be strongly of the christian persuasion and they may view a red coin with "horns" as related to the "mark of the beast" idea that gets tossed around in those sort of communities.
Like I said maybe I'm just paranoid and no one would see it that way. Honestly I personally think #2 looks way better and more professional but #1 is the super safe option.
I think maybe it being red is probably good among the chinese community as well. Thats indicates good fortune does it not?
What are we, living in the dark ages? Who cares what religious wackos think. If they are stupid enough to think a coin can be 'the devil' then it's unlikely they even know what virtual currency even is, they probably think the internet was created by satan as a device to waste away peoples lives by watching Youtube videos and such :p. Are we going to cater for religious nut jobs or are we going to keep out heads down, stay focuses and pick the design that genuinely looks the best and gives the most unique feel without it being 'too complex'?
Anyone who holds or is thinking of buying SBC will care what the "religious wackos" think if/when SBC starts getting dumped becuase of poor choice of logo. Horns is definitely not a good idea; people might associate it with devil, and the "S" with Satan, and red with the devil. This will deter 2 kinds of people from SBC:
1. Christian / religious types.
2. Non- religous types, don't give a damn about the horns per se, but even they might be worried that the horns will scare off the religious types and therefore limit the appeal of the coin.