I was trying to explain this to a squadmate in game, so here you go:
You earn one coin for every point you earn in combat.
Coins can be used only to purchase aircraft or squadrons.
Some players purchase coin to upgrade their aircraft as soon as allowed. Other players wait until they have earned the coin in game to get their upgrades.
Personally, I achieved rank (31) with 2,080,000 coin. I did purchase coin from Echoboom to upgrade my planes as soon as I was able.
Someone who did NOT purchase coin might reach MORAF (31) with less coin, say 1.8 million. This is because they never had coin added to their account via purchase.
All players who did not ever purchase coin, should reach (31) with the exact same amount of coin in the bank, assuming they purchased and tricked out all aircraft and did not create a squad (squad costs 100,000 coin i think.)
I could buy up ten million coin today, but that will never effect my rank or how soon i reach MORAF.
Make "cents?"
EDIT you can buy five million coin at a time now, for $99. Im sure Zup would be very glad if you did