What are the conditions for the start coins in Mario Kart 8 multiplayer?

I played online a little in Mario Kart 8 and I noticed that my starting coins are different every time. Sometimes I start with 4, sometimes with 0. I believe in single player you start with 5 (at the 1st race of a grand prix), and every next race with 0.

I thought it had something to do with coins collected in the previous game, or with an excess amount (so collect coins while you have 10). I thought that because I had a very good race, much coins and a first place. The next race I started with 4 coins or something. But it proved false, because an other time, I sucked balls (actually I was very good, but the other players picked on me, and I got the wrong items, of course :P) and came in last with 0 coins. However, I started again with 4 coins.

So, what is going on with this starting coins madness?

I say 4 starting coins in my whole question, and I only saw 0 or 4 in multiplayer. Not sure if that is actually the case or not