The game uses two types of currency: cash and coins. Cash is what you can earn normally through daily rewards and from completing various missions. You'll earn more cash by completing missions in higher difficulty settings. You'll also earn more cash by collecting the daily rewards in consecutive days. Cash is used in purchasing Specialty Buildings and their upgrades, purchasing new tracks, buying lives, and many more.
Coins in the other hand are considered "premium currency" since it can only be earned in very limited amounts by completing missions. Coins are used in the Monkey Laboratory to purchase permanent upgrades that will take effect on all your units.
Both cash and coins can also be purchased using real money via microtransaction. This is entirely optional and players won't be deadlocked in their progress should they choose to manually farm for these currencies in the game instead of buying them.