I think Mt Gox may have largely contributed to it and perhaps was even the main instigator, absolutely, but we need more evidence. I'm very interested to see what comes out of the Japanese criminal court case against Mark Karpeles, it may reveal a lot of important historical information here.

There's been some speculation that the Bitcoin Halvening may affect the price soon: http://www.thehalvening.com

Personally though, I'm perfectly fine with Bitcoin prices being stable. The gold rush craziness was really toxic for Bitcoin in the end.

If by wild fluctuations you mean the out of nowhere exponential price growth, I think gox shenanigans are understood by many(without the bias of millions of dollars invested) to be among the main causative factors there.

It certainly can't be easily dismissed as a probable cause.

Compare to the period 1970-1980 when the Hunt brothers tried to corner the silver market.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silver_Thursday#/media/File:Si...

How would Mt Gox been able to do this?