People bought XPYBits for BTC
When they were converted to ATOM if you wanted to sell you could have sold your ATOMs for BTC.
The difference between your XPYbits buy price vs ATOM sell price is profit.
I'll try to simplify
You go to store order and pay for something which is $100
When you go to the store to pick it up the store offers you something which they say is better but completely different.
You don't like it and ask for a refund
You get $130 back because the price is based on the new thing you didn't like.
You walk away richer by $30
Have you ever stopped to ask yourself where that money came from?
Come to think of it, what is or was xpy.io/ionomy source of income for the last 18 months? (or however far back you wanna go and explore this subject)
For ATOM's they were sold on an exchange so the money came from other people bidding.