People obtain bitcoins by buying them from other people, who are typically miners or people who bought a lot of bitcoins early and want to cash out a proportion of their worth.

However, the people responsible for creating the bitcoin protocol only benefit financially if they sell their own bitcoins, or if an increase in demand raises the price bitcoins are trading at.

The Bitcoin economy is a free market; people can buy and sell bitcoins and will, and any profits they might make are entirely governed by supply and demand.