It's cracking and peeling off all over the cable. I've seen this happen at the tips of other cables (like iPod USB cables and MacBook powerbrick cables), and it usually happens where the cable enters the plug, and understandably so becuase that's where most of the stress is when incorrectly coiling the cable, but I keep this one mostly in a drawer, uncoiled. The white plastic is cracking along the length of the cable and peeling off very easily. Weird.
